You Can Sing Me Anything (69 Love Songs - Magnetic Fields)

Member Name: venice105

Product:	69 Love Songs - Magnetic Fields
Date:	30/10/06 (1911 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hours of listening pleasure

Disadvantages: You might need more room on your mp3 player

69 Love songs is a three disc "concept album" conceived by the prolific songwriter Stephin Merritt. He has several bands, the Magnetic Fields being but one. He has been quoted as saying he came up with the idea to write 100 songs about love "as a way of introducing myself to the world", but settled on 69. According to his website houseoftomorrow.com (which details all of his various incarnations) , he originally came up with the idea that the album would become a live musical revue with varying performers in different venues. The band did a limited tour of the album, possibly not to be repeated as Merritt always has a new project on the go. The year of its release 69 Love songs was critically praised and made many best album lists, although the band have remained fairly unnoticed in mainstream music.

In the summer of 2000 I queued for several hours (granted on a sunny summer's morn'!) to get tickets to see a rare free performance by the band in Battery Park, NYC. We obtained the precious tickets, and returned later that afternoon for the concert. However, clouds were looming ominously above. Several hundred uberhip Manhattanites crowded into a seated courtyard ("Scenesters", I sniffed, "they probably haven't even heard the album"). The concert began, and the band were intent on playing the entirety of the three albums. Not long after they began, thunder began to rumble. The crowd shifted nervously in our aluminum chairs. Sure enough, lightning began to flash leeringly in the August evening sky. The heavens opened and a summer storm descended. The band and crowd retreated in hopes that it was a temporary squall. It relented, and we clamoured recklessly back onto the lightning rod aluminum chairs. Our thirst for deliciously witty, bleakly romantic music had no fear of death. The band returned to thunderous applause. They resumed playing, we sung along happily, all pretensions of our own position as anything but worshippers at the throne of Stephen Merrit now evaporated. It was like I imagined a Smiths concert in the mid-80's might have been, you could taste the love. Alas, 'twas not to be. The lightning returned within the hour and the band conceded they were probably not prepared to pay out the eloctrocution compensation cases that would follow. You've never seen such wilted, dejected souls file from a concert. We had touched glory for a brief second only to see it fade like a dying firefly.

Apologies if this is taking too long to get to the music, but the above tale is, I think, a perfect allegory for the experience of listening to the Magnetic Fields' opus 69 Love Songs. The initial jubilation of being in a park in NYC on a gorgeous summer's day (naïve beginnings), the scorn at less worthy types who it (love) all seems to come so easily to, the heady peak of seeing the band (object of desire), for the first time, the comedic prolonging of suspense when one is waiting for it, the briefest, fleeting elation when things actually go right for awhile, the intense fear you will die (be it lightning strike or heartache) but you still must have it, how big or small it makes you feel in the grand scheme of things, the desperate clinging to something that the fates are conspiring against, and often oh so often, it ends with fruitless despair and dashed hopes. Ah, Lerve... These albums all explore the varying stages, whether it be new infatuation or jaded ennui.

When I first heard there was an album, a triple album, containing 69 Love Songs(!) I thought it must be about the saddest or sappiest thing ever. And while it can be sad and sappy, it also describes the endless other varieties of emotion or lack thereof to do with that little four letter word. The three c.d.'s comprise 69 songs of wildly different musical styles and impressions. Stephen Merritt's gravelly baritone descends into (a more tuneful) Leonard Cohen territory, especially when he's feeling blue. He also sings in a higher voice when the mood strikes. His voice and his songwriting seem enslaved and ever changing by the notion of making each individual song a perfect capsule. So does this diversity make for good listening? If you don't mind unpredictability, mood swings, the occasional ukelele, if you like a bit of black humor thrown in with your romance, it's not to be missed. These are the 69 songs!:


Volume One
1.Absolutely Cuckoo 2. I Don't Believe in the Sun 3.All My Little Words 4.A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off 5.Reno Dakota 6. Don't Want to Get Over You 7.Come Back from San Francisco 8. The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side 9.Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits 10.The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be 11.I Think I Need a New Heart 12.The Book of Love 13.Fido, Your Leash is Too Long 14. How Fucking Romantic 15.The One You Really Love 16.Punk Love 17.Parades Go By 18.Boa Constrictor 19.A Pretty Girl is Like... 20.My Sentimental Melody 21.Nothing Matters When We're Dancing 22.Sweet-Lovin' Man 23.The Things We Did and Didn't Do

Volume Two 1.Roses 2.Love is Like Jazz 3.When My Boy Walks Down the Street 4.Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old 5.Very Funny 6.Grand Canyon 7.No One Will Ever Love You 8.If You Don't Cry 9.You're My Only Home 10.(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy 11.My Only Friend 12.Promises of Eternity 13.World Love 14.Washington, D.C. 15.Long-Forgotten Fairytale 16. Kiss Me Like You Mean It 17.Papa Was a Rodeo 18. Epitaph for My Heart 19.Asleep and Dreaming 20. The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing 21.The Way You Say Good-Night 22.Abigail, Belle of Kilronan 23.I Shatter

Volume Three
1.Underwear 2.It's a Crime 3.Busby Berkeley Dreams 4.I'm Sorry I Love You 5.Acoustic Guitar 6.The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure 7.Love in the Shadows 8.Bitter Tears 9.Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget 10.Yeah! Oh, Yeah! 11.Experimental Music Love 12.Meaningless 13.Love is Like a Bottle of Gin 14.Queen of the Savages 15.Blue You 16.I Can't Touch You Anymore 17.Two Kinds of People 18.How to Say Goodbye 19.The Night You Can't Remember 20.For We Are the King of the Boudoir 21.Strange Eyes 22.Xylophone Track 23.Zebra


Whew it's impossible to concisely get those in! But I hope worth a look, the titles of the songs should I hope give an idea of the vein of humor. The entire three discs come in at just under three hours listening time. Of course, they are more easily digested one at a time, and complete in and of themselves. These are just a few of my favourite song quotes:

"Don't fall in love with me yet, we only recently met, true I'm in love with you but you might decide I'm a nut give me a week or two to go absolutely cuckoo, then when you see your error, then you can flee in terror like everybody else does."

"I could dress in black and read Camus, smoke clove cigarettes and drink vermouth like I was 17, that would be a scream but I don't want to get over you."

"'cause I always say I love you when I mean turn out the light, and I say let's run away when I just mean stay the night."

"The book of love is long and boring, no one can lift the damn thing. It's full of charts and facts and figures, and instructions for dancing, but I, I love it when you read to me and you, you can read me anything."

"Let this be the epitaph for my heart, Cupid put too much poison in the dart,….who will mourn the passing of my heart, will its little droppings climb the pop chart.."

"Are you out of love with me? Are you longing to be free? Do I drive you up a tree? Yeah! Oh yeah! Do I drive you up the wall? Do you dread every phone call? Can you not stand me at all? Yeah! Oh Yeah!" (a duet)

If you prefer straight up sweet he does those too ("Grand pianos crash together when my boy walks down the street, there are whole new kinds of weather, he just makes life too complete.") I would recommend this c.d. set to anyone who is open-minded about music, and enjoys humor and wit in their tunes.

Are there duds on this album? Well there are a few songs I'm not bothered about, but these are just as likely to be the next person's favourites. For the majority of 69 songs composed together to be of such high quality is an outstanding feat. Overall it makes me laugh, makes me sad (if for nothing else my unworthiness at the wit of Mr. Merritt) and happy at varying turns. The first album has the most upbeat tracks and the silliest sense of humor, while the second is perhaps the most country twinged. I don't know if the third intentionally winds down but it does have more slow, blues and jazz style songs. Stephin Merritt is meant to be a dab hand at the production process, having pretty much complete creative control over the whole thing. I would say the individual songs tend to stick to one style but the c.d's each have numerous styles within.

It is not as disjointed as it might sound, at least not to me. It fits together, it doesn't feel like some weird experiment. I guess I'm trying to say this "concept" album does not strike me as pretentious.
Despite the fact that Stephin Merritt is obviously far cleverer and well read than most mere mortals, he has a real talent for capturing the universal. It feels like a sublimely perfect mix c.d. that the person who knows you best has given you.

Several of the songs have guest lead (and accompanying)vocals from some of Merritt's musical collaborators, including Claudia Gonson and Dudley Klute. These break up the album nicely and contribute to keeping it from ever feeling samey. I suppose this collaborative effect invites comparison to the likes of Belle and Sebastian. In truth I don't mind them, but Stephen Merritt to me is never, ever twee. His self-deprecation seems to come from a very deep and dark place, while at the same time there is immense silliness in the likes of songs like "Let's pretend we're bunny rabbits" ("let's do it all day long..") or "Fido, your leash is too long ("You've been digging in the rubble gettin' bitches in trouble, sans doute your leash is too long.") In long lost conclusion, if you're feeling bored, want to hear some baritone, alto, tenor, pop, cello, mandolin, disco, banjo, harmonium, country, jazz, blues, accordian, numerous puns, metaphors, poetry, romance, despair, betrayal and xylophones, this might just be for you. Whatever your mood, one of these albums is bound to pinpoint it. If you've finished reading this review you definitely have the patience and required attention span to listen to all three!

The last I checked it was possible to buy these seperately but it's usually cheaper to buy the set. The three c.d.'s all have enclosed lyrics

Wow shocked to see this is a dirt cheap £9.99. for all three on Amazon. So no excuses really…

Summary: Excellent introduction to an unusual band