track 32: i should've known

My love for Aimee Mann's band 'til tuesday had developed about two years after their last album, Everything's Different Now had come out. I wore out my copies of their three albums listening to them over and over again. But there was hope: Aimee Mann was releasing a solo album! It was supposed to be out sometime in 1992. I remember a whole period of time when I was working at Toys R Us, hanging out at Record Bar all the time and constantly keeping an eye on their dry erase board with the list of upcoming releases. I probably asked the employees about it far too much. I was a bit obsessed. 1992 came and went, but no Aimee. Finally, in March of 1993, her solo debut Whatever came out on Imago Records. I - well, I typed "I made" and then backtracked, but let's face it, kids- I made my mom drive me to Specs on Kendall & 117th when she got home from work that Tuesday evening. Actually, I think she was probably going for her walk at Indian Hammocks Park. "Yes, I'll go walk with you, we just Have. To. Go. To. Specs!" I don't think it was considered a major release, so they had only unloaded the cassettes so far. Not the CD? No, the cassettes. I got it anyway and got the CD a while later. Aimee was worth it. And she totally was, Whatever was pop rock heaven. Nothing compared to the great single, "I should've known" and "say anything" was fantastic.






The album got really good reviews and it wasn't long before the news that she would have another solo album soon. And then the record company went out of business. She eventually released I'm With Stupid through Geffen Records and I was there to buy it as soon as I could. It was even better than the first album and the first single got played on "Melrose Place." One of Aimee's most beautiful songs ever, "Amateur" comes from this album. It's a song I really liked at the time, but would later come to really appreciate and identify with, during my experience about 4 years later with The Boy Who Broke My Heart. Aimee Mann was still my drug of choice.