#16
The Magnetic Fields
"69 Love Songs"(1999)
I dare you to find a larger, more eclectic collection of music released that is not a compilation or box set, that holds up as well as this does. Somehow Stephen Merrit put out 69 songs on one release, the majority of which are solid, and even the ones that are not, never ruin the album(s). I use the interchangeable plural there because you can think of this as one huge release, or three volumes, which is the way I purchased it. In any case, all three volumes are solid enough to place the entire work as my 16th best music purchase of 2006.
When you have 69 tracks, three albums worth of material, theres plenty of room to reach out into other genres, and that's exactly what Merritt does here. You have the piano ballad, "I Don't Believe In The Sun", the Johnny Cash tribute, "Chicken With It's Head Cut Off", an electro-pop gem "I don't Want to Get Over You", the crooner, "My Sentimental Melody", and the wonderful epic, "Sweet Lovin' Man". And that's just on the first CD, admittedly the best of the three, but that's not to say there arent plenty of other gems on the other two parts.
Theres three things that make this such a solid release to me, one is how different all of the songs are, all the genre hopping, which I already mentioned. Another is how solid all these songs are melodically. I have The Magnetic Fields' first two albums, "i", and "Distortion", and although I like those albums, they're spotty at best. Theres generally 2 or 3 AWESOME songs, 3 or 4 decent ones, and the rest filler. On the entirety of 69 Love Songs, theres maybe only 10-15 songs I don't care for, the bulk of which are under 1:30 anyway, so they never disrupt the amazing flow of this album, a flow driven by well written melodies, and-ah! The third thing I love about this album, the lyrics.
Stephen Merritt is one of my favorite lyricists. For me, the best kind of lyrics, are simple, yet tightly constructed, and very witty. That sums up the whole of this album, it's all very witty, cutesy, simple, yet you can tell the man behind them is very intelligent. Take the lyrics of "The Night You Can't Remember", about a dancer taking advantage of and marrying a drunken sailor, with the chorus, "The night you can't remember...the night I can't forget!" or the bridge in, "I Think I Need A New Heart", in which Merritt laments his incapacity for love, "Because I always say 'I love you' when I mean 'turn out the light'/and I say 'let's run away' when I mean 'just stay the night'". These aren't just love songs, in alot of them, the narrator is a bitter, heartless douchebag. This is another reason why the album is so listenable, it's not just some mushy singer-songwriter album-theres a wealth of emotions, instruments, attitudes, singers (theres three different singers on this album, including a female, and Merritt himself), themes-Merritt has 69 tracks on this release, but he uses all the space to it's fullest extent, and covers just about every facet and genre of pop music created in the 40 years before the release of this masterpeice. And the fact that he does all of that in a mere three hours worth of music is a true testament to the genius of this album. No, theres nothing
new here, but these 69 songs not only instill a passion for the past of pop music, but hope that in the future, that in another 40 years perhaps a performer as witty and talented as Merritt can create another perfect summary of pop music, using 69 Love Songs as a touchstone.
95/100