Album: Aimee Mann, Charmer (Super Ego/Proper)

Another sweet viper's bite of post-Freudian dyspepsia from the singersongwriter who loves to mistrust. It's not that she doesn't like people...

It's produced to sound as if it could have been made at any time over the past 30 years: jangly/chunky guitars, relaxed tempi, pop-formal melody, self-conscious smears of analog synth. You can take it either as a recapitulation of old virtues or as the same old, same old. I prefer the former.