#406 Magnetic Fields, '69 Love Songs' (1999)

Previously #465

An ambitious triple album by Stephin Merritt’s Magnetic Fields. This album is often cited as a major influence for a lot of singer-songwriters. I can see why; there are some excellent songs on the album. But the thing is that, in my opinion, Merritt’s commitment to write and record 69 songs was overly ambitious. It feels as if I’m meandering through a scrapbook of his mind. It’s filled with many different ideas and genres. Sketches for a great album. If he had taken the best 11-12 songs, this could have been a 5-star album for me, but instead, it was 2 hours and 52 minutes of incohesive songs. As a full collection, I often lost interest, with my ears pricking up every now and then when an interesting song came on.

Some of my favourites include ‘The Book Of Love,’ ‘Love Is Like Jazz’ (what an interesting song!), ‘How Fucking Romantic,’ ‘Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits,’ & ‘Washington D.C.’ Merritt’s an unusual character, who only wears brown, claims to be on the autism spectrum and has been called the “most depressed man in rock” by Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould. I remember feeling the same about this record last time and safe to say, my opinion hasn’t changed.

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