Magnolia O.S.T.

THE TROUBLE with Aimee Mann is that she's just not moany enough.

While Alanis, Tori, Fiona, Paula et al have made millions from telling the world what a shitty hand they've been dealt, the (relatively) neurosis-free American has had to settle for cult status.

It's something of a surprise then that, rather than going for a guaranteed unit-shifter, Paul Thomas Anderson has got Mann to supply no fewer than nine songs for his Oscar-nominated movie.

Although Irish audiences have yet to see Tom Cruise gyrating around to her efforts - Magnolia opens here on Paddy's Day - the soundtrack has been so well received in the States that she's up for a gong of her own.

The main reason for this is 'Wise Up', a thoroughly modern trip hop love song which is all over top 40 radio at the moment like a rash. Tender rather than mawkish, it delivers its emotional payload with a precision that you just wouldn't get from a Whitney or a Mariah.

'Deathly' and 'You Do' are two more songs that in less sensitive hands would probably turn to MOR slush. Capable of going from little girl lost to femme fatale in the flex of a larynx, Mann invests her work with too much raw emotion for it ever to be classified as "easy listening".

Not that the collection isn't without its faults. Restricted by the constraints of the film - or maybe where her head's at at the moment - there's none of the playfulness which made Mann's Whatever and I'm With Stupid albums such essential purchases.

Potential buyers should also be aware of the presence of not one, but two Supertramp tracks. We saw the wispy beard brigade off in the '70s, and by God we'll see 'em off again now!

Any thoughts of saving yourself #15.99 evaporate when Mann's cover of Harry Nilsson's 'One' arrives on the scene. Guaranteed to melt even an Eskimo's heart, it makes a mockery of her currently being sans record deal.

None of which has affected her productivity. In addition to this soundtrack, a new album proper, Bachelor No. 2, is available from the www.aimeemann.com website and there are plans for a major tour which will stop off here in the autumn.

The moany side are going to have to soldier on without her for a while longer.