New Aimee Mann video re-creates ‘Til Tuesday’s ‘Voices Carry’

In order to fully appreciate the new Aimee Mann video for “Labrador,� you’re going to have to spend time watching at least two clips, including the one for “Voices Carry,� her first hit with ‘Til Tuesday. You’ll probably end up running through both a few more times thereafter.

Directed by comedian-radio show host-DJ Tom Scharpling, the video stars Mann, Superchunk drummer-comedian Jon Wurster and a mustachioed Jon Hamm as Scharpling, who explains his idea for the clip at the opening: To capture the magic of “Voices Carry.�

Mann, for her part, issues a disclaimer before the clip runs, claiming she was tricked into signing a contract: “I want to make it perfectly clear that I had no choice in this video. I was legally bound to do it.�

Then, to the shot, the clip replicates the plotline of 1985’s “Voices Carry,� made in the MTV era when a good video needed a story -- even one that may or may not have much to do with the words of the song itself.

In “Voices Carry,� that story involves the bleach-blond, spiky-headed Mann, who wears a then-fashionable braided hair-tail extended down her back, wrestling with relationship woes with her uptight boyfriend.

So does the “Labrador� video, except the hunky boyfriend is played by Wurster, and he and Mann are in the middle of similar struggles -- one of which involves her artistic integrity, and another Mann’s braided tail. Watch it below.

Mann’s eighth studio album, “Charmer,� is out today.

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