• Record Label: Superego
  • Release Date: Mar 31, 2017
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 43 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 43
  2. Negative: 5 out of 43
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this album

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
  1. Apr 5, 2017
    6
    This album may have interesting lyrics, but the music is basically undemanding adult-contemporary. So, even though the songs may be "pretty" and "lovely," they're also kind of boring and predictable. After listening to the entire album, I really have no interest in hearing it again. I do like many of her other albums, though. In fact, her last album, Charmer, was quite good.

    Maybe
    This album may have interesting lyrics, but the music is basically undemanding adult-contemporary. So, even though the songs may be "pretty" and "lovely," they're also kind of boring and predictable. After listening to the entire album, I really have no interest in hearing it again. I do like many of her other albums, though. In fact, her last album, Charmer, was quite good.

    Maybe Aimee Mann really *does* need a record company exec breathing down her neck saying, "I don't hear a single!"
    Expand

Awards & Rankings

Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Apr 20, 2017
    80
    Mental Illness is first and foremost an album about achieving self-sufficiency through trail and blunder. And in doing so, she once again stands tallest, and quietest, in an exceptionally consistent career.
  2. Q Magazine
    Apr 12, 2017
    80
    These are fine story-songs for any age, era or metal disposition. [Jun 2017, p.107]
  3. Apr 3, 2017
    80
    An album rooted in the low end of the emotional spectrum is a risk, but through fastidious instrumental detailing and lyrics that evince sympathy even when they’re at their most cutting, Mann crafts a melancholic atmosphere that is worth repeated listens, whether as a means for catharsis or as a well-crafted cloud to ease the punishing brightness of a too-sunny day.