Product description

69 Love Songs

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Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0036172946921
Label : Merge Records
Manufacturer : Merge Records
Publisher : Merge Records
Release date : 1999-09-07
Title : 69 Love Songs
Format : Array
Original release date : 1999-09-07
Studio : Merge Records
MPN : 29469
Number of discs : 4

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). Limited three disc set f eaturing more wonderful, yet cynically skewed, pop songs as only Merritt (and a midi) can do 'em! Features all three volumes of '69 Love Songs' (also sold separately), as well as a76 page booklet only available in this box! Each disc comes in a separate standard jewel case & together they come in a colorful CD-sized slipcase box. 69 tracks.

Amazon.com's Best of 1999
Singer-songwriter Stephen Merritt's ironically morose lyrics, Tin Pan Alley stylings, sugary melodies, and idiosyncratic sound have earned his band the Magnetic Fields cult status and the adulation of grad students everywhere. The ambitious, genre-hopping, and intensely heart-tugging three-disc set 69 Love Songs probably won't gain Merritt the wider recognition he deserves, but the clever misanthrope likely wouldn't have it any other way. --Mike McGonigal

Amazon.com
Initially conceived as 100 love songs arranged in alphabetical order for theatrical revue performance, Stephin Merritt--indie-pop songsmith and Magnetic Fields spearhead--downsized his ambitious concept project to 69 Love Songs, his first recording under this moniker in four years. Parleyed into three volumes, Merritt, as on other outings, is joined by a rotating cast of musicians including manager Claudia Gonson. These players take on the role of orchestra and cast to Merritt's madcap composer, librettist, and performer, augmenting his lo-fi electronic-based rock with sparkling instrumental touches and narrative vocals for a portion of his absurdly wondrous ditties. Endlessly intriguing, the Fields revisit not only earlier themes of love both shunned and requited, but continue to forge a seemingly impossible synthesis of country-tinged Euro-pop and old-school musical theater. No stranger to melancholy, Merritt's twinkly music-box world, in shades of resplendent violet, is beautifully peopled with incurable romantics who drop pop-culture references and shed gender identity as often as most folks change their underpants. Not surprisingly, 69 Love Songs is delicious defeat on the romance front while pulling ahead as Merritt's most coherently engaging listen. --Paige La Grone

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-10-31 rating:

Journey through the human heart
Who would have the creative energy and ambition to release a three disc set containing 69 songs all about the most complex of human emotions, while at the same time giving it a name that is a clever double entendre? Stephen Merritt, that's who. The gifted/eccentric pop auteur has delivered a stunning set of songs that examine love from every possible angle. This is no sappy collection of silly love songs. Merritt is concerned with more than just the superficial idea of love that we have been presented in movies, television, and, well...... music.

The songs on this collection examine the countless effects that love can have upon us. There is the giddy joy of falling in love and developing a new relationship, the pain of realizing that love is fading from a relationship, the need for love, unrequited love, the pain of a failed relationship, clinging to falsely idealized love, etc. The list goes on and on. Sometimes the songs explore the intertwined natures of lust and love and sometimes they examine love in the purest sense.

The course taken by these songs is never conventional and neither is the music. Just like love itself, nothing is ever predictble. Sometimes Merritt crafts pure pop songs, elsewhere he shows his Joy Division influence with syntheziers and distortion. But turn around again and he's churning out acoutsic folk or jazz influenced cuts. The reason that everything coheres so nicely is because Merritt has a singular artistic vision here. He works with a purpose on these songs and whether he's breaking your heart or making you laugh with his caustic with, he never resorts to cheap sentimentality or easy answers. We wouldn't want it any other way. Savor this album. We may never see it's like again.

review by: i.hoogendyk date: 2008-03-15 rating:

Anguish and Irony
If you are fan of intelligent and clever lyrics that never sacrifice humour and irony for the sake of their art, while simultaneously upholding musical/instrumental integrity (yes, there is something for the poet and music snob here), this is quite possibly the perfect album of its kind either before its release or after. Could easily be called the best album of the last ten years, making critically-acclaimed artists such as Radiohead look like experimental hacks.

review by: CJ date: 2008-02-05 rating:

Great songwriting
Stephin Merritt is an amazing songwriter and demonstrates this on each and every album. 69 Love songs is just a great, ambitious concept album both funny and heartbreaking. I highly recommend this and Get Lost and I and Holiday and pretty much anything else he's done.

review by: date: 2007-12-23 rating:

Excellent!
If you like the Magnetic Fields, (or if you appreciate quality music at all), then you would love this box set. The Magnetic Fields sing about love and happiness/unhappiness, but they do so in a quirky and entertaining. Most of the songs are very short (two to three minutes) and non- repetitive, however there is one longer song (I think it's about eight minutes) in the set. I love 69 Love Songs and I strongly encourage others to listen to it.

review by: fakeplasticzero date: 2007-12-21 rating:

Great compilation!
This album is one of the better alternative albums of the 90's and it showcases not only the wonderful songwriting abilities of Stephin Merritt, but the wonderful blending of the breaking indie music scene at the time as well as the classic Magnetic Fields synth-pop sound. The album has very unconventional instruments used and a few special guest singers (like on "Long-Forgotten Fairytale" "All My Little Words" "Come Back from San Francisco" etc.). The albums central theme is all love songs (hence the title) and is by far the most diverse collection done by the Magnetic Fields to date. My personal favorite is Disc 3 but all discs have their highlights. Definately a great buy for any fans of the Magnetic Fields.

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