Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Lost in the ’80s: ‘Til Tuesday

by John C. Hughes

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Boston’s ‘Til Tuesday first got noticed after winning WBCN’s Rock & Roll Rumble contest in 1983, which led to the band getting signed to Epic Records. Two years later, their debut album’s title track, “Voices Carry,” hit #8, they won Best New Artist at the MTV Video Awards, and things looked bright indeed for Aimee Mann, Robert Holmes, Joey Pesce, and Michael Hausman. But this is LIT80s you’re reading here, so chances are you know how this story’s going to end come follow-up time.

'til tuesday

“Looking Over My Shoulder (Single Version)” was the next single off Voices Carry and, oh, I don’t know … I love this album and all the songs, and I think this was probably the best choice. It’s catchy and more upbeat than “Voices Carry,” showing off a different side of the band. It had an amusingly engaging video that played off the press’s focus on Aimee at the expense of the rest of the band. Yet despite all that, it flopped. Who knows why? These are the things that used to keep me up at night. Epic obviously had high hopes for the single since they commissioned big-shot engineer Bob Clearmountain to remix it (that’s the version featured here).

Back to the video — it cracks me up that the entire setup is that the band is pissed off at Aimee for being the focus of the last video. So how does this video address it? By showcasing Aimee again! Poor li’l princess …

Epic tried to revive the project with a third single, “Love in a Vacuum,” the very song that won the Rock & Roll Rumble for the band years earlier. But the momentum was lost, and the single failed to chart. A year later, ‘Til Tuesday’s second album, Welcome Home, scored the group’s second and final Top 40 hit, “What About Love.” The band, with a reduced lineup focused almost solely on Aimee, soldiered on for an excellent third effort, Everything’s Different Now, but even with the songwriting power of Matthew Sweet, Jules Shear, and Elvis Costello, it was virtually and unjustly ignored.

That’s okay, though, because Aimee got her revenge a few more years and record labels later, when she started her own label and began a string of critically acclaimed and more commercially successful solo albums. See? Sometimes LIT80s tales have happy endings.

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  • JonCummings
    I wound up buying two of the four copies of "Everything's Different Now" that sold in 1989--one on cassette, one on CD. It is one of my favorite albums of the '80s, and I think it was Aimee's finest moment generally--the perfect balance of the pop instincts that drove Til Tuesday and the introspection that characterizes her solo work. However, as far as I'm concerned her single greatest song is "Coming Up Close," from the "Welcome Home" album.
  • Rebecca
    Jon, if you didn't sell your CD copy, then I bought the third of four used from Mystery Train in Boston almost ten years ago. A great album but definitely not one to be embraced by the mainstream. And "Coming Up Close" is such a good song!
  • Terrific band. Not every song is a gem, but every single one has *something* to love—be it a quotable line, a killer bridge, a tasty solo...

    Rob't Holmes = seriously underrated. Always had great tone, and played inventive riffs without being overtly flashy. Never really found another vehicle, though—last I heard, he was playing in a wedding band...

    It's almost funny that Epic tried so hard to market the band based on Aimee's sex appeal—because, let's face it, "sexy" is not really Aimee's thing, not in any obviously-salable way, anyhow. But, you know, they were working with what they had: "brainy-nerdy-indie girl" did not yet exist as a marketing category. Aimee helped invent that, and she doesn't get enough credit for that.
  • wendy
    I don't know, I am a huge Aimee Mann fan, but the til Tuesday stuff sounds SO dated to me. I think there is a timelessness to her post-band material.
  • Well, for one thing, post-TT she started singing in her natural register...
  • Old_Davy
    I could not agree more with you, Wendy. I think the Til Tuesday material is wonderful, but the sound of the band is too 80's techno-craft for my tastes. I'd love to hear Aimee re-record some of that material using the same techniques she uses today. And that fourth copy of "Everything's Different Now" that sold in 1989? I bought it.
  • kels
    Oooooh, no matter what the haters, or the indie hipster purists who solely adore Aimee's solo work say, every single song til tuesday dropped was absolutely amazing. I saw em live in Tampa (one of my few ticketed front row centers) and every member of the band was on fire. I still have the guitar pick she gave me. Welcome Home was one of the first CDs I bought that was "DDD" and today, it is still a sonic stunner. A reunion CD from them, while probably impossible, would be very welcome indeed.
  • J
    My favorite Til Tuesday album was Everythings Different Now...I think of that as the soundtrack for a couple of years there when we played it all of the time.

    We saw Aimee in concert in 2000, and because her songs are so low key and somewhat depressing, I was shocked to see her up there, smiling and having fun! That is, until she came out on stage (it was Dec 12, 2000) and told us the Supreme Court had given the election to George Bush. What a buzz kill THAT was.
  • Darren
    Looking Over My Shoulder is a real gem, as is at least half of that first album. "Welcome Home" was a real gem - there is no more perfect "rainy day" album on earth, in my most humble opinion - and, of course, it went all but completely unnoticed.
  • I Love a good deal of Aimee's solo work, and really love Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now, but the first 'Til Tuesday album was hit and miss for me. It's too bad the band fell to pieces after their third album because even though the line up was getting smaller and smaller with each album, the songs were getting better and better.
  • "Coming Up Close" is a gorgeous song.

    But I think Aimee did better solo. Her Christmas shows are terrific.
  • Derry
    Am I the only person who thinks that the 'til Tuesday stuff was better than anything Aimee Mann has done solo??
  • No, you most certainly are not.
  • JohnHughes
    Nope, especially Everything's Different Now.
  • xolondon
    The third TT album is pretty much perfect, but I have never been too into her solo work bar some perfect songs like Wise Up. There is something about her vocals that, to my ears, has changed and she just sounds whinier Sacrilege I know.
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