Inspired by Steven Jay Schneider’s book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”
# 990
Artist: The Magnetic Fields
Title: 69 Love Songs
Year: 1999
I remember first reading about this album in the morning paper. The reason I started reading the review was that the album was given the highest score possible. When I found it was an album consisting of 3 CD’s with 69 songs I must admit I was a little hesitant at first. When I later listened to it the first time I was really impressed. I would not say that every song on it is great but damn many are really really good.
New York City singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt is the man behind the band The Magnetic Fields and he is one very talented song writer. He sings many of the songs and has a really nice baritone voice. Claudia Gonson also sings on the album which gives the overall impression a nice variety and mix.
Merritt has said “69 Love Songs is not remotely an album about love. It’s an album about love songs, which are very far away from anything to do with love.“
I find it a little bit difficult to describe the music on the album. But from what I have read, albums released by Merritt under the name “The Magnetic Fields” usually consist of synth-pop music in a 1980s style. But I would like to add that there are some singer/songwriter and also folk elements present in the music. There are alot of guitars and other instruments such as piano, cello and banjo to just call it 80s synth-pop.
I got to see them perform live at the Roskilde festival in 2001 and it was just amazing. They were even better live than on records. When I saw them live they kept the songs much more stripped down, acoustic and with simpler arrangements. I recently read that The four 69 Love Songs shows at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 2001 were shot for a planned live DVD release. So lets keep our fingers crossed that it will see a release sometime in the future as Stephin Merritt owns the footage.
I have to confess that I have not listened to any other albums by The Magnetic Fields. Maybe I have been afraid of being disappointed and let that taint my relationship with this album. It sounds really silly… maybe I should listen to some of their newer albums?
Visit the unofficial companion wiki to the triple album 69 Love Songs
Listen to the Classic Albums Podcast and hear what they have to say about 69 Love Songs.
Lovely stuff, I agree! As for labelling the music: How about indie? Or twee? (Well, maybe twee is arguable, but in that case so would synth-pop be…)
What on earth happened there? Did I just do a smiley by mistake? Oh, come death and deliver me from this shame!
Thanks for your comments and smilies Andreas!
Indie is a tricky thing to me… does it really say anything about the type or style of music?
Not more than rock or pop, no.
That’s what the sub-categories are for: Twee, Grunge, Sleaze and so on!
Yes, you are probably right there… who am I to agrue with an ex-recordstore employee?
To me I guess, “indie” has always been music coming from the underground or less popular genres, doing perhaps something new and different to the so called mainstream artists and music.
It is a tricky label. We have seen so many so called “indie bands” coming from the underground and then becoming huge. When does their music start to become mainstream and stop being “indie”? Or is it just depending on what record label you are on?
All that will probably be history in a couple of years anyway because of the way the music industry is looking today with declining sales and artists releasing their music on their own.
It will be very interesting to see where it all will go…
So to end this neverending reply I would like to label The Magnetic Fields as “post-indie-indie-acoustic-synth-pop”.
Nice…
Touché!
Well played, sir!
Fantastic. Definitely in my top 20 albums ever. EVER!
Stephin Merritt has a musical version of Coraline opening in New York in the spring – Check it out – http://www.mcctheater.org