The Magnetic Fields: Classic or Dud?

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Hold on, everyone -- my statement was largely unconnected to the quality of the bands' work. (I see now that my phrasing was a little bad, and sort of implied that -- but that's not how I meant it.) I like both bands, to differing extents. I was just noting that there's a particular strain of listener who gravitates solely to pop music that they perceive as a big gag on the whole concept of pop music, and the only explanation for this that I can see is that they either (a) haven't heard much good, current music, and therefore have never had the experience of forming non- jokey emotional connections with current music in general, or (b) just aren't really comfortable with the idea of music as a serious emotional or intellectual tool.

Best exemplified by someone I know's reaction to a sort of house-y track on the new TMBG album, which involved a lot of amazed giggling: "Whoah, check it out, they're doing a dance track!" To which I wanted to reply something like: "You know, there are thousands of whole albums that are entirely house music, but you won't dream of listening to any of those." It's this weird "I only listen to music as parody" kind of phenomenon, but I don't think it should reflect too poorly on the bands involved, and only covers a limited portion of their fanbases.

― Nitsuh, Friday, 2 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, right. Then I agree, yeah.

― Nick, Friday, 2 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Highway Strip: problem of 'detachment' etc possibly fades away. The thing is mostly in Merritt's dreamy / surreal / quite *serious* mode (as, to some extent, was first LP). (Obvious example: 'Crowd of Drifters'.)

The whole comic / pastiche etc thing, this convinces me, is *one aspect* of the MFs, which is really mainly a 69LS issue. (TCotHS = staggeringly significant LP, as Steady Mike has been insisting for ages before I went near the thing.)

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

I don't know if this should go here or on Jeff W's why-do-you-change- your-mind thread but I take back all the bitter things I said. I just started appreciating the Magnetic Fields more than I ever did before. Even all the songs I used to skip make sense now. I even got really into "Acoustic Guitar". The basic pattern of my relationship with a band is initial awestruck infatuation -> disillusionment and estrangement -> time to develop new perspectives - > tentative curious second approach -> deeper understanding and appreciation than at first -> comfortable companionship.

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It'll end in tears, you realize. You forgot the step about coming home one day and seeing your copy of whatever disc you have engaged in carnal activities with some fresh-faced college radio DJ who's just discovered it.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I even got really into "Acoustic Guitar".
There's hope for me yet. I can't stand that song & it's a good illustration of why I can't get into MF.

― Mark, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For some reason I keep gravitating towards the synth-y songs on "69 Love Songs", or songs that sound like they could have been on "Get Lost" ("Epitaph of My Heart" maybe.) Then again I keep rediscovering "Get Lost"; "Get Lost"! Fuck! What a great album that was. For some reason the cheap and bare drum machine sound on "All the Umbrellas in London" can hit me harder than all the live cello on "69...". Or the black-and-white-horror-film feel of "Smoke and Mirrors" vs half the songs on "69...". Something about those synths is so effective somehow.

― geeta, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark, please explain re: Acoustic Guitar. You find it too distanced? I find it quite wonderful, and on a basic musical level at least, faultless.

― Ally C, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm guessing it's because it's treacly twee with clunky lyrics and weak little-girl vocals. But I like it now.

― sundar subramanian, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

treacly twee with clunky lyrics and weak little-girl vocals

Tallulah Gosh?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's nowt weak about Amelia's pipes. Quite a set, I say.

― electric sound of jim, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark, please explain re: Acoustic Guitar.
Well, I agree that it has a nice melody, but the words take me right out of it. There is no truth (What sentiment is the song trying to capture? I've never thought about anything even remotely like this when somebody left me), no humor ("...you were the one who could make here move her cute little bum" -- this is not funny to me), just cleverness. And something about the atmosphere of the song is so cloying.

"The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure" is awesome, though. The "Holand/Dozier/Holland" lyric knocks me out. Maybe I'll come around on the rest someday.

― Mark, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

All I have listened to is the song 100,000 fireflies, and I found its lyrics to be amusing, but its sound became very annoying quickly. Yet, I still read most of this thread and am further amused by the amount of time and thought you [people] put into think about music.

― BadAssFrey, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, it's depressing isn't it? I mean, when we could be thinking about football and paying bills, right?

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

I am enjoying the 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields and I find Stephen Merritt to be the American Lawrence. The music sounds like it's made on toys and his curious droney vocal inflection transforms all his genre experiments into a singular, distinctive self-style.

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 13 September 2002 02:31 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

http://stephinsources.blogspot.com/

If you're asking, "Ernest, aren't you a little bit obsessive?", the answer is yes.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

They're classic when he's not being mawkish. Merritt has the same problem Rufus Wainwright does: his taste for the lachrymose brings out the worst in his drippy voice.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

but merritt went years, and several albums, before he developed that occasional mawkish inclination. for most of his career he was aggressively unsentimental. and his most recent and obvious sentimental moment, "it's only time," earns its keep by being a really great song.

rufus, who i like but not nearly as much, has an entirely separate problem. it's not mawkishness. it's that he isn't a very good lyricist.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Merritt had other singers voice his mawkish tendencies. The 6ths projects, for instance, have always seemed excuses to give his weepiest tunes to the coolest singers

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, i hear the 6ths totally differently than you do. admittedly, i don't listen to the second 6ths album very much, or ever, 'cause it's just not that good. but i think wasps' nests is a pretty great pop record, and there's nothing mawkish or weepy about "aging spinsters" or "when i'm out of town" or "dream hat" or "san diego zoo." bitter, yes. cynical, yes. sad, yes, quite often. (and quite often funny, too.) but not weepy in an even remotely mawkish way. it'd be easy to accuse merritt of being too clever or smart-assed or too wrapped up in his classic-american-songwriter songform dreams, but mawkish? nah.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't own "Wasps' Nests" – I just own the second one which, admittedly, I don't play at all – but most of the 6ths material seemed second-tier: at best pleasant throwaways to give the wonderful Sarah Cracknell and Bob Mould decent material, at worst platforms for the likes of Marc Almond and Gary Numan.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

the second one is kinda crap when it comes right down to it. but you should check out wasps' nests, which for me was the final piece of merritt's amazing early '90s synth-pop run, that joyously bitter burst of songs from distant plastic trees and the wayward bus (the two best things he's ever done) through holiday, charm of the highway strip and wasps' nests.

he's done some great stuff since then, but he's never been the same, having entirely given up on his homemade synth-pop attack by the time of 69 love songs. he's going for something entirely different now. but he was a pop song machine back then, and wasps' nests weren't throwaways but rather the mark of a guy who had too many good songs to contain within his own records. a lot of those 6th songs were staples of the mag fields' live shows in those days, too.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

TS: 'Young & Insane' vs 'Love Goes Home To Paris In The Spring'

― the bellefox, Sunday, 19 February 2006 20:08 (twenty years ago)

the latter, every time

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Sunday, 19 February 2006 21:39 (twenty years ago)

You know, I think I might prefer the former!

But the true answer, I think, is: whichever is playing. For they are both so irresistible!

I really like the melody of the second half of the verse of 'Young & Insane': 'the record store / is execrable'. Maybe I mean I like the lyric too. I don't really know the whole lyric. I like also the way that at the end of the chorus he flatly repeats 'Young & Insane', just to make things clear.

It is queer how those two songs are so far ahead of the rest of that ep, which is droning rather than delightful; unless I am forgetting something.

― the bellefox, Sunday, 19 February 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

I have just reread this thread. It's terrific!

― the bellefox, Monday, 20 February 2006 00:01 (twenty years ago)

on the right day "paris in the spring" is my favourite magnetic fields song. although i don't really understand what the chorus means, i guess.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 20 February 2006 01:38 (twenty years ago)

Indeed - I think it is more obscure than it seems!

It is a great phrase, and it always seemed to me to promise a song of great depth. I don't think the song itself is that song - it's just a piece of tremendous freshness.

But what does the chorus mean, then? That love's real home is in Paris ... that it is Spring now ... and so it is leaving Merritt (in NYC? you could hardly sing the song in Paris) and flying home ... leaving him antipathetic to the addressee?

― the bellefox, Monday, 20 February 2006 10:59 (twenty years ago)

there's slightly more, isn't there - he seems (to me) to be under the impression that everyone knows that love goes home to paris in the spring; although how this ties in with the reasons he gives for having had enough, i'm not sure.

It is a great phrase, and it always seemed to me to promise a song of great depth. I don't think the song itself is that song - it's just a piece of tremendous freshness.

"tremendous freshness" - excellent!

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 20 February 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

I had been operating under the assumption that Boss Raggett was the kindly elder statesman of this joint, but, unless he retracts his old comments upthread, he'll be downgraded to "sub-Ribbentrop hack of ILX" in my book.

― cousin ill, Monday, 20 February 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

Does no-one want to answer my TS?

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 22 February 2006 14:44 (twenty years ago)

unless he retracts his old comments upthread

You're out of luck there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 15:04 (twenty years ago)

'Love Goes Home To Paris In The Spring', of course.

I'd have told Sundar some good Stephin stories when I was in Toronto if I'd known he liked them!

If Ned hears Kiki & Herb cover TMF, the scales may fall from his ears.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

That would be due 100% to Kiki and Herb and 0% to your darling.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 16:06 (twenty years ago)

Oh, you!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

Why does no-one love 'Young & Insane'?

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 22 February 2006 16:31 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Hello,

I am collecting essays and articles on the work of Stephin Merritt for a book and am still accepting proposals. Just wanted to stop by and make that announcement.

email susancallow at hotmail dot com if you are interesting in submitting!

― Susancallow, Monday, 29 May 2006 16:06 (twenty years ago)

The intro to "I Think I Need A New Heart" is a commercial for Cesar Canine Cuisine now.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 03:29 (twenty years ago)

i was right to jump ship w/69 love songs

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 03:36 (twenty years ago)

lol

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 12:56 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

New album with an intriguing title coming in January: http://houseoftomorrow.com/archives/000057.php

Anyone know anything more about this than they say here?

― caek, Monday, 29 October 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

stephan merritt djing at the george and dragon in hackney tonight. kinda wanna go but too fuggin far for a monday.

― Upt0eleven, Monday, 10 December 2007 12:07 (eighteen years ago)

four months pass...

word is merge is releasing vinyl editions of 'the charm of the highway strip' and 'get lost', possibly others.

― omar little, Thursday, 10 April 2008 03:45 (eighteen years ago)

Bellefox, you're in 2006, now.

I love that song, though.

― bamcquern, Thursday, 10 April 2008 05:27 (eighteen years ago)

Or, like strongly.

― bamcquern, Thursday, 10 April 2008 05:27 (eighteen years ago)

Do Merge generally do a good job of vinyl remastering? I'd quite like highway strip.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 10 April 2008 07:53 (eighteen years ago)

"Young and Insane" is one of my favorite MFs songs! Though maybe you have to have lived in a town with nothing but a brown school and dead shopping mall (or two!) to appreciate it.

― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 10 April 2008 17:31 (eighteen years ago)

MF has a lot of details like that. Most writerly music is my favorite music.

― bamcquern, Thursday, 10 April 2008 18:24 (eighteen years ago)

July European tour just announced: http://houseoftomorrow.com/archives/000066.php

Tickets for the London shows on sale here as of a couple of minutes ago: http://artistticket.com/themagneticfields

― caek, Friday, 11 April 2008 07:59 (eighteen years ago)

i've spent way too much on tickets recently and i'm still not too sure about Distortion. But I can't not go to this. Anyone know what cadogan hall is like as a venue?

― Upt0eleven, Friday, 11 April 2008 08:46 (eighteen years ago)

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