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[rancidhooligan]

Why not make a thread about music-related things you enjoy instead?

Okay.  Done.

I enjoy the music of Stephin Merritt, who records under various "band" names (The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies, The Future Bible Heroes, The 6ths) and has various people who contribute musically to the "bands" but, as I understand it, Mr. Merritt is the person writing the music and lyrics.

Although I have heard some songs by The Gothic Archies, I only own six albums by The Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs Vols. 1-3, Get Lost, Holiday, The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees.  I know I should have bought i and Distortion by now but I haven't.  Why I don't have any albums by the other "bands" is beyond me... probably because my local record store doesn't typically have any of Mr. Merritt's music in stock and, instead of special ordering it, I buy something I like that's physically present.

Anyway, enough about my record purchasing habits.  Here is an interesting article on Mr. Merritt from Salon back in 2004 when i had just come out.

EDIT:  I should note that The Magnetic Fields, etc. are not my favorite artist(s).  Just music I enjoy and have been listening to a lot recently.  It seems as though a few people on this forum like Mr. Merritt's music so I figured this would be an interesting thread to start.

[Inlander]

I adore Stephin Merritt's work - when he's on form. However he has absolutely shocking quality control. 69 Love Songs contains some of the best songs of the last decade, but it also contains a handful of songs that are just downright dreadful ("Punk Rock Love", I'm looking at you). When he's on form, though, he's absolutely untouchable: I have no hesitation in putting his best songs alongside the greats of Tin Pan Alley from the 20s and 30s, songs by people like George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, etcetera, with their wit, sophistication, and deep understanding of human emotion.

[rancidhooligan]

("Punk Rock Love", I'm looking at you).

I think that song was meant to be "punk rock love" in musical form.  Or ironic.  I'm not sure which but at least it's mercifully short. 

[Inlander]

Neither of those are really an excuse for absolute crap, though!

[rancidhooligan]

Ha, touché.

69 Love Songs was sort of uneven but there aren't too many songs I don't like.  (As you mentioned, Punk Rock Love is one of those that gets skipped as soon as it comes on.)  In my estimation the percentage of songs that suck versus those which do not suck is less than would be on three albums by most other artists.

I have heard that i was not very good.  Do you own this album?  What is your opinion of it?

[Inlander]

I think it's really good. Not great, but a good, solid album with some real high points (namely "I Don't Believe You", "I Looked All Over Town", "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" and "It's Only Time"). It's definitely worth getting. I think a lot of the backlash against it was probably just because 69 Love Songs raised expectations to an impossibly high level.

The Pieces of April soundtrack is also worth tracking down, as it includes a handful of terrific songs that haven't been released elsewhere.

[rancidhooligan]

Thanks for that tip.  I'll have to pick that soundtrack up.

[E. Spaceman]

The thing is, 69 Love Songs is a completely atypical album! I mean, listen to any single Magnetic Fields album before and afer and even though some of the songs will sound similar, it will overall be completely different.

Distortion is superb as well, remember "When My Boy Walks Down The Street" from 69 Love Songs (my favourite song off the whole thing)? Well, imagine a whole album made in that style.

The 6ths are great, Stephin Merritt's tribute album to himself, he writes a bunch of songs and has other famousish people sing them.

Future Bible Heroes, now that is a band. They are Merritt's electro-pop band. In the last album he rarely sung though, and left Claudia Gonson (many memorable lady parts in other Mag Fields albums) to do most of the singing, which is awesome. Chris Ewes also does most of the music (he does various glitchy bits in other Merritt projects). I uploaded their second album to the mediafire thread. Look fopr it or something or drop me a line and i'll find the link.

[rancidhooligan]

Distortion is superb as well, remember "When My Boy Walks Down The Street" from 69 Love Songs (my favourite song off the whole thing)? Well, imagine a whole album made in that style.

That's a great song.  I shall purchase this album with great haste!

[Inlander]

Hmm . . . I've only listened to it once, but I wasn't greatly taken by it. The music kind of seemed to run roughshod over the lyrics, and when I listen to a Stephin Merritt song it's mainly to hear the lyrics. Which perspective makes "Three Way" a really, really bad way to start an album, incidentally. But everyone else seems to love it, and obviously I'm going to have to listen to it more before I make my final judgment.

[Thrillho]

I've neve heard anything outside of 69 Love Songs, but that album is a masterpiece.

And at the risk of sounding pretentious, it's not even the music that I like best about it. It's the audacity. The guts, the balls, the chutzpah if you will, that it took, to just make a triple-disc, 69 song conceptual album about love, some songs minute-long sketches, other full overblown ballads. It's a masterpiece for that alone, and unfathomably it's probably the only triple album I've heard that I couldn't edit down to a single disc when pushed.

I mean for god's sake, I'm not sure I could even write 69 SHIT songs in the time it took him to make this album, and I'm not sure I've written 69 decent to good ones in the eight or nine years I've been writing.

Aside from that, it's a hell of an album on musical merits alone. My favourite is 'I Don't Believe In The Sun.'

I hear he released an album composed entirely of feedback. THat's pretty bitchin'.

[rancidhooligan]

the chutzpah

Good fucking word.  I love chutzpah.  I wish I had occasion to use it more.

That's a pretty apt description of 69 Love Songs, I think.  I had heard a lot of MFs prior to 69 but I really love it.  I listen to it often.

[pinkpiche]

Well the trick to really be a succesful wordlover is to MAKE the occasion for it. I'm just an apprentice still.

[rancidhooligan]

That is certainly true.  I tend to use the phrase," brass of a river boat gambler" in place of "chutzpah."

Nice Terminator 2 quote in your sig, by the by.

[Elizzybeth]

69 Love Songs is possibly my favorite album right now.  I've listened to it four or five times straight through during interstate driving adventures, and I've listened to individual songs countless times (given that I've listened to this album on my computer, my iPod, on the radio, and on CDs, it truly has not been counted).  "I Think I Need a New Heart" gets stuck in my head for days on end.

I also have Distant Plastic Trees and the Wayward Bus, The Charm of the Highway Strip, and Future Bible Heroes' Eternal Youth, but not one of those albums has grabbed me in the way that 69 Love Songs did.

when I listen to a Stephin Merritt song it's mainly to hear the lyrics.

I agree with you there (which, of course, makes "Punk Rock Love" more of a disgrace than I think it would otherwise be).

[Johnny C]

I really like Distortion, dudes. Actually, here is exactly what I thought of it.

So, Stephen Merritt likes a good concept, even if he usually lays that card out on the table with the title of each album. He liked the idea of writing sixty-nine love songs, so he did. He liked the idea of writing an album where all the songs start with the letter "I," so he did. The best part is that these conceits usually work - 69 Love Songs turned out to be a great reflection on the form of the love song, while i wound up being an album that would have been really self-centred if it wasn't really self-deprecating. Distortion, likewise, is pretty heavy on the... well, you know.

But it's more than just a guitar setting or a layer of sheen added in Pro Tools the week after recording finished. Distortion is, musically, an exercise in obscuring melody, rhythm and tone behind constantly churning soundscapes. It's a largely successful one at that; really, the only concession that the Fields make to Merritt's generally fastidious, detailed approach to songcraft is the raising of the vocals in the mix. Rather than blending in as part of the metal machine music underneath, the singers coast gently just over top of it, patented harmonies reflecting gently off of each song. It's a dizzying but mostly gorgeous texture that compliments the meticulous nature of The Magnetic Fields' music.

That's not to say Distortion is entirely perfect. The album loses itself somewhat in the industrial throb of shoegaze towards the end, resulting in a four-track stretch that suffers further from coming after the three best songs. Thankfully, it ends in "Courtesans," a melancholy, oscillating lullaby. It's also surprisingly not that far removed from older Magnetic Fields albums. Replace the squeals, background thuds-for-drums and Big Muffs with subtle electronic skitters, synthesized drums and old Casios and you've got the sonic canvas "Take Ecstasy With Me."