Mann attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004. In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved minor success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, though Mann's signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules". Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums.
Solo career
In 1993, Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.
Mann had met musician Michael Penn in the 1980s and with comparable songwriting styles and record-industry woes to share, they struck up a friendship during the recording of Stupid, which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Around this time Brion produced her album Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.
Meanwhile, iconoclastic film auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me". Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Due to this exposure, Mann became sought after to contribute to soundtracks, a success made ironic by the music industry's indifference.
Independence
Fed up with both ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in her song "Calling It Quits", she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000 (see 2000 in music), having negotiated a contract release from Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann's "more indie than indie" success was carefully noted by other musicians.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
Aimee continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2004 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November of that year Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of July 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005) as a concept album set in the '70s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and are now on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live and has few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album reflects Mann's interest in boxing in its illustrations as well as its title, derived from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to "forget" about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.
In October 2006 Aimee released 'One More Drifter in The Snow', an album of Christmas songs. All bar one of the songs, 'Calling on Mary' were covers of holiday classics.
Mann's independence from the industry led her to more explicit political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.
June 2008 brought the release of '@#%&*! Smilers,' a collection of songs featuring greater use of keyboards. Aimee's set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the same month featured a number of selections from the new album as well as a number of her concert standards. Aimee and her band covered Elton John's 'My Father's Gun' as part of the set.
Sugarcoated
Aimee Mann Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The poor brave martyr
And guess who broke your heart
Whoever has it
Sugarcoated
When they wrote it
I would've believed it too
I would believe it
I'm so relentless
And you're defenseless
Until the pencil stops
You'll be the one who's
Sugarcoated
Overloaded
Do you believe it's true
Do you believe it's true
Do you believe it
And out of your mouth
Comes a stream of cliches
Now I have given you so much rope
You should have been hanging for days
But you keep spinning it out
Spinning it out [Repeat: x5]
It wasn't nice though
I came back twice so
Now I'm the Antichrist
If I had been as
Sugarcoated
Self-promoted
They would've believed me too
They would've believed me too
Would you believe me too
Would you believe it too
The song Sugarcoated by Aimee Mann seems to be about a complicated relationship that went wrong. At the beginning of the song, Mann sings about how the other person in the relationship portrayed themselves as a victim, but they are the ones who broke Mann's heart. The word "sugarcoated" hints at how the other person might have manipulated the story to make themselves look good and innocent while portraying Mann as the one who caused the heartbreak.
As the song progresses, Mann's frustration with the other person continues to build. She sings about how she is relentless and the other person is defenseless until the "pencil stops". This may suggest that the other person is a writer or storyteller who keeps spinning the story to their advantage. Mann seems to have given the other person a lot of opportunities to tell the truth, but they keep repeating cliches and spinning the lie.
In the final verse, Mann sings about how if she was the one who sugarcoated the story, people would've believed her too. This suggests that this is not just about the relationship but the way people perceive and believe stories. The song is about the power of storytelling and how the truth is often distorted for personal gains. It's a powerful commentary on how we perceive reality and how stories shape our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
You looked the part of
You appeared to be the embodiment of
The poor brave martyr
Someone who was both suffering and brave in their victimhood
And guess who broke your heart
Whoever broke your heart
Whoever has it
Whoever has your heart
Sugarcoated
Described in a way that's too pleasant, misleading, or not honest
When they wrote it
When they described it
I would've believed it too
I would've been convinced by the description as well
I would've believed it too
I would've been convinced by the description as well
I would believe it
I would still be inclined to believe it
I'm so relentless
I'm persistent and unyielding
And you're defenseless
You're unable to defend yourself
Until the pencil stops
Until the person stops writing or speaking
You'll be the one who's
You will be characterized as
Sugarcoated
Described in a way that's too pleasant, misleading, or not honest
Overloaded
Burdened with distortion or misrepresentation
Do you believe it's true
Are you sure that it's factual
Do you believe it's true
Are you sure that it's factual
Do you believe it
Are you inclined to believe it
And out of your mouth
As uttered by you
Comes a stream of cliches
You repeat unoriginal, outdated phrases or ideas
Now I have given you so much rope
Now I've given you many chances or opportunities
You should have been hanging for days
You should've been experiencing consequences for your actions by now
But you keep spinning it out
But you keep extending the situation further
Spinning it out [Repeat: x5]
Continuously extending the situation
It wasn't nice though
It wasn't kind or pleasant
I came back twice so
I returned a second time
Now I'm the Antichrist
Now I'm being portrayed as an extreme villain or enemy
If I had been as
If I had been characterized in the same way
Sugarcoated
Described in a way that's too pleasant, misleading, or not honest
Self-promoted
Promoting oneself in an exaggerated or misleading way
They would've believed me too
They would've also been convinced by the exaggerated or misleading promotion
They would've believed me too
They would've also been convinced by the exaggerated or misleading promotion
Would you believe me too
Would you also be convinced by the exaggerated or misleading promotion
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Aimee Mann, Bernard Butler
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind