The Magnetic Fields' "50 Song Memoir"

He had a lot of strengths that had nothing to do with the stupid media-related pose that he's taken for several decades, and it's really a pretty sad loss. Good example of someone who should not have been allowed to read his own reviews.

He's written as many good and uneven songs as he used to. The problem is he insists on singing all of them.

He's fallen off badly. Someone who always wanted to be clever, pushed way over the edge via self awareness. He couldn't write San Diego Zoo now. That part of him has been gone for years. In some ways, probably good for him financially, so the art part might not really matter in the grand scheme of things. He put out enough good albums to deserve to make a living.

Nothing to do with this album but goddamn I love "Dream Hat."

Wasps Nest and Holiday still his best collection of songs.

xps i dont really love you anymore is one of my favourite songs of all time

"Weird Disease" is real good too.

Good example of someone who should not have been allowed to read his own reviews.

Hmmm... based on the little personal knowledge I possess, he didn't frequently agree with his reviews.

He couldn't write San Diego Zoo now. That part of him has been gone for years.

Tho I like "SDZ" just fine, if so I don't care. If I was a songwriter in my 50s I wouldn't stay in that mode either.

*"Weird Diseases"

"Me and Fred and Dave and Ted" and "My Ex and I" quietly challenge monogamy.

I threw together a list of his keepers last night

i went to the 1-25 show here last week and was utterly charmed the whole time (couldn't attend night 2 bc of conflicts). hustle 76, dionysus, danceteria, and tetris were standouts but i liked the whole thing

For a guy whose music I used to love, I could not for the life of me imagine going to two nights in a row.

Tho I like "SDZ" just fine, if so I don't care. If I was a songwriter in my 50s I wouldn't stay in that mode either.

Well, he's mostly (always?) just been flitting from one form of formalism to the next.

Merritt seems like another of those acts whose reception hinges on first exposure. Like, I recall hearing Charm right around when it came out - no doubt I had heard Superchunk's MF cover, and I had Boston friends hip to the early stuff, and Feel Good All Over was based here and I knew the nut that ran it, I was a fan of Chickfactor, etc. - and heard Holiday not long after. My thoroughly mediocre band played with the MF the first time they played Chicago, at Lounge Ax, and they inexplicably went long; I want to say it was a 2+ hour set, at the time (and maybe ever?) the longest set in Lounge Ax history. Get Lost and Sixths were the firsts ones I looked forward to, and tbh 69 Love Songs was the first one that disappointed me. Which obviously puts me in a small minority, since for most I imagine that was their introduction.

bringing the 50 songs to the Apollo Theater in June; also Pittsburgh.

http://www.houseoftomorrow.com/calendar/

Stephin sitting in and DJing with Irwin Chusid right now at wfmu.org

Three years later, I got around to listening to the first half of this yesterday. It's fine! Enjoyed the assorted period genre parodies in particular. What is wrong with the grumps?