Coming Up Close: A Retrospective

If rock had a ”most improved” award, Aimee Mann would get it with Coming Up Close: A Retrospective. This best-of’s opener, ”Love in a Vacuum,” is as unlistenable as early-’80s synth-rock gets; by 1988’s swan song Everything’s Different Now (represented by six tracks), Mann had become one of pop’s cleverest writers, doling out tears and battery acid in equal heartrending measure. B+