Quickies, Magnetic Fields

Continuing the alphabet of albums, Q is for quite brief songs.

Quickies, Magnetic Fields, 2020, :46

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Like TMBG's Nanobots and Elvis Costello's Get Happy!!, this album features a lot of very short songs. There are 28 of them, to be exact, the longest one at 2:35. While I'm a devotee of Stephen Merritt's songwriting, I think his strengths are palatial, cleverly rhymed torch style songs. To me, his wit and his storytelling need room to present themselves fully. So he's challenging himself on this album, and that's a fine thing, but it isn't his best work. "The Biggest Tits in History," one of the longer songs, is basically a dad joke, and "The Day the Politicians Died" is similarly one-note. Some of the others are pretty good verses from songs that didn't get fully written. However, the bright spots are very good. "The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee" is a story song that would have fit well on 69 Love Songs. I think, however, overall I'm disappointed because the moments of sweeping melody and catchy refrains are few and far between. Favorite tracks: "The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee," "My Stupid Boyfriend," "When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit."

i, Magnetic Fields

Continuing the alphabet of albums, I is for interaction! 

i, Magnetic Fields, 2004, :41

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Just as his magnum opus 69 Love Songs was mostly about an outsider's view of love — broken hearts, truck stops, unrequited pining — this set of songs arranged around the letter "i" (but also I, as in the self) is mostly about how the narrator of each song relates to other people. Whether he's pining after a lost love, anxious he isn't enough for his perfect boyfriend, identifies as a clown rejected by society ("I Looked All Over Town"), or lost in love ("I'm Tongue-Tied"), this "i" is really about "them." It's not a flaw, just an interesting observation. Even if the narrator is perpetually self-effacing, the fun charm of the Magnetic Fields' songwriting is engaging as hell. I mean, "I had a dream and you were in it / The blue of your eyes was infinite" Come on, that's a gem. "And, true, for you I'd move to Ecuador / But I don't really love you anymore." Only Stephen Merritt still writes 'em like that. I especially like it when he veers more toward the clean, pretty, lounge style here and not the distortion and synths he also loves. Favorite tracks: "I Don't Believe You," "If There's Such a Thing As Love," "It's Only Time."

50 Song Memoir, Magnetic Fields

50 Song Memoir, Magnetic Fields, 2017, 2:30

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I sort of cheated on this album; I listened to about 1/5 of it a day over several days, not all in one go. I love 69 Love Songs but have found some of the Fields' work to be not as appealing. Some of his albums can be morose or have a sort of sludgy ambiance. But this five-CD box set of a concept album recalls 69 Songs, and not just in its length. A lot of the songs here are as catchy as anything he’s recorded, but even the more measured songs are inviting and intriguing. This is the kind of album that you stop for a while just to think about the song you just heard; by its very concept, each one represents an important moment, a real emotion. There's a lot to unpack. The post-breakup song "Never Again" is so terribly sad: "I won't know what to do / With these houses for you / I’ve built in my head." Of course, with this many songs there are bound to be a few not to your taste. For example, the clanking noise of "The Day I Finally…" grates on me. The other issue I have is Merritt's tendency to hide his vocals, layering them with echo or distortion or just burying them under loud synths. That's fine for some songs, like about learning to play the synthesizer or dancing, but a lot of these lyrics really should be front and center. Favorite tracks: '74: No," "75: My Mama Ain’t," "86: How I Failed Ethics," "93: Me and Fred and Dave and Ted."