The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs (1999)-Ethan Smith
The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs (1999)
By Ethan Smith
"Don’t fall in love with me yet/We’ve 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" seems a fitting enough opening for this review. For those of you who have any sort of feelings whatsoever it’s very easy to fall in love with this album. Sixty-nine songs. Wow. Looking at the scope of this, twenty-three songs over three albums you’d expect you’d have more than your fair share of filler. However, if you were expecting that you’d be expecting wrong. This is a release that covers the entire spectrum of human emotions. Every song feels very necessary except for a few. But then it wouldn’t be sixty-nine and that wouldn’t be as much fun.
This album traverses music everywhere, from crooning piano songs, to country to piano ballads to synth pop to what can only be described as “other”. The songwriting is impressive and stands strongly alongside front man Stephin Merritt’s ability as a composer. He brings in a variety of vocalists and incorporates enough different styles and instruments. The rest is something that always manages to keep itself interesting.
Once again, at sixty-nine songs this can be a very hard-to-swallow release. But once you do swallow in all its grandeur it’s a lovely feeling to have it sitting there in your stomach. This album could have very easily seemed tedious, forced and pretentious but this instead, it succeeds in coming across as honest. If this doesn’t touch you, you don’t have a heart. It’s a very abstract beauty.
Copyright C. 2008 Ethan Smith