Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture 
Product Description: - The much anticipated follow-up to Paul Thomas Anderson s Boogie Nights, Magnolia features a specially orchestrated soundtrack, largely written and performed by Aimee Mann ( Til Tuesday member and sadly overlooked solo artist). Mann s voice has always been a suitable vehicle for conveying emotional turmoil and indelible sadness, and several tracks here (Build That Wall, You Do, Driving Sideways) do so with the rich melodicism that informs her best work. Producer Jon Brion s sprightly horn arrangements for Momentum are an unexpected (though not completely unwelcome) splash of cold water. Only Mann s cover of the Harry Nilsson-penned Three Dog Night hit One backfires, as it simply doesn t deliver the same effective climax as the original. The two Supertramp tracks from their Breakfast in America LP tacked on at album s end are incongruous (though they cut down the degrees of separation between them and Mann to an incredible one!). However, for anyone with an interest in Mann s melodic songwriting, there are eight worthy originals waiting for you. --Rob O Connor
Customer Ratings: - A must-hear for Aimee Mann fans!. I loved the movie, Magnolia, and one of the highlights was all of the Aimee Mann music played throughout. I am a huge Aimee Mann fan and bought this CD when it released. I cannot tell you how many times I have played it because it is just. that. good!
My all-time favorite Aimee Mann songs, Wise Up and Momentum and Driving Sideways are from this soundtrack. I have to say that I haven t heard an Aimee Mann song that I didn t like, though.
A fun bonus is the presence of Supertramp on this soundtrack. I forgot that I really like them until I heard The Logical Song and Goodbye Stranger on the CD.
This is a great CD for on the road or chilling at home! - As good as the film. Magnolia the film is the reason I became an Aimee Mann fan. Her song Wise Up, was profoundly moving when sung by virtually the entire cast of the movie in that all so powerful montage. A collection of songs that capture the same varied emotions of the film, most of which are sung by the captivating Aimme Mann, this is a must have if you loved the movie.
- My Introduction To Aimee. It seems incredible to me now that nine years ago I had never heard of Aimee Mann or her music. It seems equally incredible that this knowledge gap closed because of a movie, I never expect much from soundtracks, however enjoyable they may be, because I generally don t go to a flick to hear music. (When you go to a concert, do you expect to see a great movie?) So watching Magnolia was a unique experience. It was 100% worth the price of a ticket, but of that, only 20% was due to the movie itself --and I liked the movie a lot. Songs like One, Driving Sideways, and Wise Up made up the other 80%.
Given such an intro, a five star review of this disk should surprise no one. What might surprise is that I was debating whether to give it three or four, because there are five tracks here I could do without. The two Supertramp songs are unnecessary. Both were played to death on top 40 radio in the 1970s and 80s, and neither added much to the film. Dreams, by someone named Gabrielle, is a pleasant enough R&B ballad. (ie: filler). Jon Brion s composition Magnolia is OK in an aural wallpaper mood-setting sort of way if you re into that sort of thing, which I m not, most of the time. Aimee s own Nothing Is Good Enough is, unaccountably, an instrumental version, someone at Reprise Records must not have gotten the memo explaining that Ms. Mann is all about lyrics, and that the music is so good because it s been crafted to serve the lyrics.
The five stars, then, are for the eight Aimee Mann songs presented whole as Aimee Mann songs: One, Momentum, Build That Wall, Deathly, Driving Sideways, You Do, Wise Up, and Save Me. They re strong enough to make up for the weak ones. Strong, because of her choice of subject matter --desolation, desperation, self-destruction, self-deception, loneliness, and longing to name a bagful--, and strong, because of her handling of that subject matter. The music somehow carries its emotional freight without coming across as oppressive. When Mann writes about people doing or experiencing these things, she is also writing about people who have turned around to face their demons, name them, and thereby defeat them. Or at the very least open a pathway to defeating them. Under even the most crushing of burdens there still lurks hope. Which is what Magnolia is about, come to think of it. If a complex movie like that can be about any one thing.
But then Aimee s music inspired Paul Thomas Anderson to make his film. They are its guiding spirit. And that, I suppose, is what the best movie soundtracks do. - A classic gem of a soundtrack.... I absolutely love this soundtrack. The perfect soundtrack to go with a perfect film. Ever since I saw the film back in 1999, it instantly became one of my all time favorites, and shortly after, I bought the soundtrack. I can t say enough about it. It s beautiful. Aimee Mann is a genius! Her songs are so powerful, and I can see why P.T. Anderson wanted to adapt her songs into a screenplay. Buy it from Amazon NOW!
- Amazing from beginning to end. The tracks on this album flow so well. The transitions are great. I ve loved Aimee Mann since her Til Tuesday days, but can never get enough of her voice on this soundtrack.
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Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture (ID: B00003A9NN)
