After years of record company difficulties, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Aimee Mann has finally got her career on a secure footing - which means that Lost In Space is her first album that's likely to be exposed to a mass audience. What a shame, then, that by her standards it's a fairly ordinary piece of work. The subject matter will be familiar to her loyal body of fans - adults' inability to communicate, the scourge of addiction, relationships falling apart - but even they would have to admit that somehow the songs here lack the zest of old. In fact, unusually for a Mann album, it's the music itself that really stands out, with mournful strings and shadowy ambient effects underpinning the impeccably tasteful guitar arrangements. But the relentlessly downbeat nature of the material takes its toll, and there's little of Mann's trademark gallows humour on hand to lighten things up. Even on average form this most sophisticated of artists is still worth hearing, and old admirers shouldn't hesitate to get their hands on this. Newcomers, however, may well wonder what all the fuss is about and would be well advised to start with this album's far superior predecessors, Whatever or I'm With Stupid, instead.
