Pros: Clever wordplay. An astonishing number of great songs.
Cons: Occasionally too clever. Those few songs that you just won't be able to stand
The Bottom Line: Released in 1999 these CDs have never gone more than a couple weeks without being listened to. These albums could replace whatever Webster's definition of love is.
wldrpretnd's Full Review: 69 Love Songs [Box] by Magnetic Fields
... some of it is just really dumb" The Book of Love
The Magnetic Fields' "69 Love Songs" is a musical achievement on a level that few would ever attempt and even fewer could ever achieve. Over the course of its three, sprawling discs it examines the idea of love from virtually every angle. It gracefully weaves its way from joyous to heartbroken, chaste to burlesque, insular to revolutionary. Stephen Merritt's wordplay is nothing short of masterly, a literate blend of wry comic observations ("Have I annoyed you, or is there a boy who, well he's just a wh*re. I've had him before. It makes me drink more") and poetic revelations (I don't know if you're beautiful, but its not for me to judge. I don't know if you're beautiful, because i love you too much.)
The album title isn't a misnomer. There are 69 songs here spread evenly over the three discs. Its highly improbably that anyone could like all of them. Its even more likely that most people will hate more than a couple especially since the Magnetic Fields leap from genre to genre juxtaposing piano driven dirges with sprightly ukulele ditties and following them both a keyboard-crazy anthem. Some of the more showtunes-ish songs don't do much for me, while the Celtic Ballad I find quite charming. But that's part of the fun because odds are that the songs one person detests will be the ones on repeat on someone else's ipod.
The albums ambition is part of its charm. Its both a celebration of love and a condemnation of it. Sometimes at the same time.
These are albums for those in love, out of love, or simply in love with the idea of love.
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