69 Love Songs

I bought this album after having heard none of the tracks on it, and none of Stephin Merritt's other material - in other words, merely on the strangth of the reviews I read. It was described variously as 'indie', 'grandiose' and 'pretentious' and, while absolutely noone I knew liked, or had heard of, the Magnetic Fields, various internet searches told me that quite a few of my favourite bands, including Franz Ferdinand, cited this album as essential. So, being slightly biased towards the critically-lauded and little-known side of things, I made the investment.
Not disappointed. Not at all. This is one of the very few albums (as one previous Amazon reviewer mentioned) that have been very well reviewed, and have actually exceeded expectations when bought. I think it made every other CD in my collection obsolete for about three months. Every single song sparkles; every single note touches the heart. You get the feeling, when listening, that the person writing this album is a real perfectionist, and it shows. The huge array of instruments - most played by Merritt himself - complement the songs perfectly, and the sheer length and scope of the album only serve to prove that there really are songwriters around who can keep up such a large number of songs without any falling flat.
The decision (From neccessity? Who knows) to make most of the songs quite short worked incredibly well for this album. There is no unneccessary repetition, and each very different song seems to be a perfect tiny snapshot of a different life, a different theme, and a different love story. My personal favourites for the moment are When My Boy Walks Down the Street, which is one of the most happy and energetic songs I have heard for a long time which manages not to be cheesy, and All My Little Words which, like so many of the songs on this album, is breathtakingly beautiful. Admittedly, my favourite song changes every time I listen - this album, like all the greats, is definitely worth repeated listens. In my case, this bordered on dangerous obsession, which might not be advisable when you have life to get on with, but it was all the more enjoyable for it!
Despite the fact that noone I know has heard of the Magnetic Fields, and despite the fact that an entire triple-CD might leave the average skint student (like me) a little out of pocket, YOU MUST OWN THIS ALBUM. No review can do it justice, you deserve to find your favourite song yourself. Every style imaginable is catered for, so you will undeniably find at least something to your taste.
Please, please trust me, please trust those hundreds of rave reviews: they're not just pretentious musos, boasting about an album you haven't heard of to sound cool, they're right! Buy 69 Love Songs or blag it, love it and tell others about the genius that is Stephin Merritt. This album, more than any other I have heard, deserves to be considered 'important' and absolutely everyone deserves to have heard of it.

A triple album box set, three hours long, containing 69 songs, covering almost as many genres - well, it has to be crap, hasn't it? Surely it must betray signs of Prince-like lack of quality control? Amazingly, it doesn't. The Magnetic Fields, masterminded by Stephin Merritt, the artist formerly known as Future Bible Heroes, the 6ths and the Gothic Archies, have produced the best album of 1999.

69 Love Songs does exactly what it says on the box. There are 69 songs, and they're all songs about love. But they're also about the love of songs. More specifically, American songs. There are references to Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Billie Holiday and those who toiled in the Brill Building.

Merritt had originally intended to release an album of 100 songs, but then settled for a more realistic 69, both for its sexual connotations, and its "typographical possibilities". He mocks himself in (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy: "I took a pen in my own hand and wrote you a hundred tunes. Now, I'm crazy for you, but not that crazy."

If you have never heard the Magnetic Fields, you may be wondering what this album sounds like. Merritt's morose bass voice is a bit Leonard Cohen, a bit Tom Waits. Doing Erasure. And country. And improvised jazz. And 18th Century Scots reels. And world music. And disco. And Broadway show tunes. And ABBA...

Merritt doesn't just mess around with genres, but with genders, too. On When My Boy Walks Down The Street, Merritt sings: "Amazing, he's a whole new form of life, blue eyes blazing, and he's going to be my wife." On the country ballad, Papa Was A Rodeo, Merritt sings to someone called Mike. At the end of the song, Mike sings and it turns out Mike's a woman: "Papa was a rodeo, mama was a rock'n'roll band, I could play guitar and rope a steer before I learned to stand. Home was anywhere with diesel gas, love was a trucker's hand, never stuck around long enough for a one-night stand."

Stephin Merritt is gay. By all accounts, he's a bit of a loner, doesn't suffer fools gladly, is a bit of an obnoxious twerp, a shy, intelligent, social misfit. I can relate, y'know?

He sings about love in all its many-splendoured forms: about being unloved, about looking for love, the first flush of love, falling head over heels in love, true love, and - at length - about the end of love: "Meaningless? You mean it's all been meaningless? Every whisper and caress? Yes yes yes, it was totally meaningless." Or, hilariously, in a duet that sounds like the couple in I've Got You Babe thirty years on: "Do I drive you up a wall? Do you dread every phone call? Can you not stand me at all?" "Yeah! Oh, yeah!"

He is not the first songwriter to wonder who wrote the book of love, but his book is a more realistic one: "The book of love is long and boring, no-one can lift the damn thing. It's full of charts and facts and figures, and instructions for dancing."

There are loads of instantly catchy ditties, but repeated listens continue to pay off. You'll be walking down the street and suddenly realise that for the last three minutes you've been singing to yourself a song about shooting an early 20th Century Swiss linguist to defend the honour of Motown's finest songwriters. Some songs are "merely transcendental" and others are "shadows of echoes of memories of songs."

And then there are the little oddities, rubbish really, but too constructed, too laboured-over, to be mere filler. The thrash trash of Punk Love, or Experimental Music Love which consists solely of the title repeated, echoed, phased and bounced, and then there's this one: "Wi' nae wee bairn ye'll me beget, untwinkle little ee. My ainly pang'll be regret, a maiden I will dee." Hmmm, yes...

Merritt's songs are often too calculated, too thought-out, but they so badly want to be loved, even if they pretend they don't. They confess all without telling you anything they don't want to. They are hugely admirable, bloody clever, but hard to actually like, to choose as something to spend your lunch hour with. Too clever for their own good. And all the better for it.

I've always loved those recommendations in some magazines and record shops. "If you liked Mariah Carey's album, you'll like this one by Whitney Houston". "If you liked REM's Automatic For The People, you'll like Semisonic". What would they say for this album? "If you like 69 Love Songs, you'll like" - what? "Nothing else"? "Everything else"? "A few very carefully chosen records which no-one else likes, and anyway, you're a total cult"?

I haven't the space to do justice to 69 Love Songs. I haven't mentioned the fact that there are four other vocalists apart from Merritt (Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, Dudley Klute and LD Beghtol). I haven't raved about the fabulous camp disco of Long Forgotten Fairytale. Or how No One Will Ever Love You is meant to sound like every track on Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album all rolled into one. And succeeds. Or that it's available as three separate discs or in a box containing a 72-page booklet. Or how Merritt's next project leans towards European cabaret and features Marc Almond, Neil Hannon and Momus among others. Or how this album contributed towards my realising I had to break up with my boyfriend.

69 Love Songs is Merritt's most successful release yet. The entire first pressing sold out on the day of release. Laura Lee Davis recently made it her featured album on her GLR radio show. She played three tracks from it, and I thought to myself, "not those three tracks, they're hardly representative." But no three tracks could possibly convey the breadth of this project. This is an album which needs to be listened to in its entirety. And loved.

after hearing so much about the album and like so many others - bought it on the strength of the reviews.

However, it was not how i first expected it to sound - "grandiose" - "masterpiece" and "perfect" are all words used to describe this album so I had very very high expectations of this album and was not prepared for the lo-fi approach to the production. I expected sweeping ochestration, joyous choruses, operatics and a perfect pop production finish to it. So i had quite a suprise when i first put on the CD.

It was low key, a little mundane and not at all what would normally be regarded as "pop" (obviously the short nature of the songs and catchy ditties allow for this pigeon holeing - but it is not accessible music to most people).

so i listened for around 5 songs before my ears picked out something akin to what i was expecting and thought maybe i had bout a dud - despite the reviews. anyway i plodded on through the discs and stuck it on the mp3 - then it came into its own. the long bus journeys to work provided an excellent chance to get to grips with the nature of the music and the massive content.

i was soon hooked speaking enthusiastically to my colleagues about a song called "a chicken with its head cut off" - humming the tune all day long.

it took a while for it sink in but everything that has been said in previous reviews is correct - it is a joy of an album, expansive, experimental, fun, and amazing, complete with witty intelligent and sometimes heart achingly beautiful lyrics.

i cannot add anything further to the high acclaim it has been given - it is a fantastic record and everyone should give it a go - all i wanted to touch on is that this is not commercial, accessible music as one may be lead to believe by reading such high reviews.

the best idea i can give you is to imagine stuart staples of the tindersticks in a good mood, singing with a simplified divine comedy, but with production similar to that of Guided By Voices. The latter comparison i think is a good one for people familiar with the stuff by GBV - i reckon that if you like wading through GBV's 45 songs per album picking out the un-polished gems - then you'll love this.

overall 5 stars. but i just cant help wondering what it would be like with a far more grandisoe procuction, a full sweeping orchestra or more elaborate instrumentation. maybe it would take waway its charm, or would it take it to another level...?