Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Absolutely cuckoo (The Magnetic Fields) (LP 4416)

The Magnetic Fields  69 Love Songs (CD, Merge Records, 1999) ***   

GenreIndie pop, synth-pop 

Places I remember: Fopp

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: World Love

Gear costume: All My Little Words

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7

Active compensatory factors: My
initial experience of The Magnetic Fields, which is dominated by one guy - Stephin Merritt, is 69 Love Songs. Since then, Tom has used another album on MNAC as his album of the fortnight.

A colleague while I was at Cambridge High School, played 69 Love Songs a lot and a couple of the songs burrowed into my brain. So, I bought a copy while I was in England, in some ways to be hip and current. It's not a triple CD that I love or play often, although I do love and applaud the fool's errand idea. 

It's hard to digest 69 songs in a row. A consistently high-quality triple studio album cannot be done, I don't think. Even The Fabs didn't try to do that. A decent single vinyl album is in 69 Love Songs somewhere, but he'd need a new title which wouldn't be as school-boy naughty would it.

It's certainly not boring, as it features songs in many different genres, including country, synth-pop, free jazz even, and, yes, off kilter love ballads. Highlights other than my two choices above are I Don't Believe in the Sun, Asleep and Dreaming, Busby Berkeley Dreams, and Acoustic Guitar.

Where do they all belong? I'm glad I have a copy. It's one I'm return to in the future - maybe it will make more sense then.

No comments:

Post a Comment