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69 Love Songs, Pt. 1 | Audio CD

by Magnetic Fields

List Price:

$14.98

Available:

Usually ships in 24 hours

Binding:

Audio CD

Studio:

Merge Records

Release Date:

September 07, 1999

Sales Rank:

82,549nd

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1

Track 1: Absolutely Cuckoo
Track 2: I Don't Believe in the Sun
Track 3: All My Little Words
Track 4: Chicken with Its Head Cut Off
Track 5: Reno Dakota
Track 6: I Don't Want to Get Over You
Track 7: Come Back from San Francisco
Track 8: Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
Track 9: Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits
Track 10: Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be
Track 11: I Think I Need a New Heart
Track 12: Book of Love
Track 13: Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
Track 14: How Fucking Romantic
Track 15: One You Really Love
Track 16: Punk Love
Track 17: Parades Go By
Track 18: Boa Constrictor
Track 19: Pretty Girl Is Like...
Track 20: My Sentimental Melody
Track 21: Nothing Matters When We're Dancing
Track 22: Sweet-Lovin' Man
Track 23: Things We Did and Didn't Do

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Album Description
1999 and first new material in four years by Stephin Merrit 's main band (his side projects include Future Bible Heroes, Gothic Archies and The 6ths). Disc one of a three CD set featuring more wonderful, yet cynically skewed, pop songs as only Merritt (and a midi) can do 'em! 23 tracks.

Amazon.com
From Stephin Merrit's Gay and Loud publishing comes the first volume of the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, a misleadingly quiet epic of a thing. From the layered feedback of "Don't Fall in Love with Me," followed by the plinky strum of his uke through to a Merrittian 23rd psalm, "The Things We Did," this volume, more than the others, hearkens back to the gloriously distorted acoustic agitation visited on The Charm of the Highway Strip. Ever the sad sack, Merritt's characters "don't believe in the sun" and drolly proclaim themselves "ugly" and the stars so "fucking romantic." Dishing up clichés like ice cream cones at a Baskin-Robbins, Merritt's lyrics take on self-involved weightiness in the context of his over-the-top conventions. Marrying electronic elements with banjo, cello, mandolin, piano, accordian, and percussion, these little numbers--sung by a revolving cast of Merritt and cohorts--riff on everything from punk rock to madrigals to Jim Reeves and Johnny Cash-style balladry, coming across as preposterously vaudevillian and Brechtian, rather than vacuous. --Paige La Grone

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 21 reviews)

I love this album... by Michael Hartge (Chicago)

1 Stars
August 01, 2007
...but it's worthless on it's own. without a doubt, the three parts of 69 love songs are so perfectly balenced, that it's senseless to buy just one. Get the set, as well as the huge booklet - and save four bucks, and probably more on shipping.

Happy Happy Joy Joy by P. Buche (Chicago, IL, WA)

5 Stars
June 06, 2007
Wow. How did I ever miss this album. These guys are just the best. Sardonic, romantic, beautiful music, can't be bagged. This stuff is just not normal. It is very very American, very carolina, very beatnik cafe, very outdoor picnic, very replay in your room with the door shut. Real musicians, real instruments, real voices, adorable lyrics that are not predictable, I can't believe they are not famous. I guess I'm glad they're not. I want to keep them as a secret.

Stephen Merritt's best - popsmithery at its finest. by Casey Dangel (Denver, CO)

5 Stars
May 05, 2006
Oh, man, can this guy write a pop song. My "this guy," I'm referring to Merritt himself, because, let's be honest -- he is the heart and soul of this band, which is the best of his several musical projects. I like Magnetic Fields a lot, and chose to review this album because, out of all his work, this one is his finest achievement. There are about a dozen tracks in this collection that I've been listening to for years that have never grown tedious, which would seem to contradict the notion that it is mere bubble gum pop (a la the Gothic Archies). There is more emotional and musical complexity than meets the eye (or ear) upon the first few listens, when you'll find yourself humming along and tapping your toes (or steering wheel). The only problem with this 3-album set is that it includes about 20 songs too many. Maybe even 25 or 30. The moments of pop brilliance are interspersed with gimmicks and throw-aways, and this is unfortunate. But really, who can write 69 pop masterpieces? I don't expect that from anyone. I just think the collection would be even more memorable if Merritt hadn't insisted on including 69 songs (yeah, yeah, we get it -- 69. heh heh.) and had instead made this a two album set. But this still deserves 5 stars, without a doubt.

If you only buy one disc of 69 LS, by alaska (New York, NY USA)

5 Stars
August 04, 2003
then disc one is probably the one to get. The ratio of brilliant to merely good songs is higher, perhaps, than on any other Magnetic Fields CD; favorites include "I Think I Need a New Heart," "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side," and "All My Little Words," an irresistably hooky psuedo-bluegrass lament about the futility of clever songwriting (penned, of course, by pop music's supreme ironist). Come to think of it, if you buy disc one and you have any taste at all, you'll end up getting the others as well -- you might as well get the box set.

Music for the soul by MJ HEMSLEY (Nottingham, UK)

5 Stars
July 17, 2003
Today, when most pop songs are simple to the point of vapidity, both musically and lyrically, it is refreshing to find something like this album. Merritt blends perfectly the beautiful melodies with clever, witty lyrics as he explores all forms of love from the disguised lament of the ugly teenager and the hopelessness of the spurned lover to the joyous proclamations of those that have found true love. He matches musical genre to the message of the song and makes effortless transitions between each. The voices of the songs have true emotion in them and successfully vary in tone so as to augment the lyrics. Claudia Gonson's voice is beautiful and brilliant, constrasting nicely with Merritt's deep bass. My only complaint is that Claudia ought to sing more. To summarise as best I can, this music is poetry, philosophy and melody. It is dark and insightful, naive in places, cynical in others, but never depressing. A true masterpiece.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	69 Love Songs, Pt. 3 by Magnetic Fields 1999 and first new material in four years by Stephin Merrit 's main band (his side projects include Future Bible Heroes, Gothic Archies and The 6ths). Disc 3 of a three CD set f eaturing more wonderful, yet cynically skewed, pop songs as only Merritt (and a midi) can do 'em! 23 tracks.
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