The Magnetic Fields: Classic or Dud?

A number of things have always put me off this obviously great music-- my own (justified) projection of ego-centricity on to Merritt, the obsessiveness of his tru fans, a couple of lousy shows, etc. But nothing put me off more than the fact that, late 90s and early 00s, his albums were full-price and yet felt and sounded cheap... there was this feeling of parsimony to the transaction of buying-and-consuming his music, like I was being grifted.

But these days I've been streaming it on Tidal and I kind of can't believe the breadth and scope of it all, all the subtle details that went into every track. And the feeling of being scammed has dissipated... it feels positively generous, for some reason. I can't think of many other artists whose work I can say I enjoy more in the streaming context than this band

That's really interesting. I've never considered the value proposition of music that way. Though there was a time when I tried to love albums more based on how much I paid (import albums costing $20 got my plays than used bin items).

For some artists, the original context of creation and release has added immensely to my appreciation and enjoyment, whereas with other removing that context is better. Magnetic Fields land in the latter for you.

Oh, for sure. I paid $30 for a bootleg Neu! CD when I was 19 and it felt like it was worth it. And I always enjoyed Magnetic Fields, there's just something about the thesis of it, compositionally and lyrically, that didn't mesh well with "paying $18-$20 for a 33 minute CD" (as I did for The Charm Of The Highway Strip). Or the inglorious expense of the 3CD 69 Love Songs boxset... which, iirc, at the time seemed like the music object that "only my more wealthy friends could afford". (Maybe this feeling was, at the time, coloured by the fact that I was buying up classic-after-classic Bowie albums at $10 a pop).

There was a discussion upthread about the thesis of this band (and Merritt's other projects) and it does seem to imply less of a "you are listening to an essential album when you listen to a Magnetic Fields album" experience and more of a sly-wink takes-the-entire-oeuvre-to-understand-it subversion of what albums are, what songs are, what lyrics are, when instrumentation is, and what emotions themselves are and how we describe them. OK I'm getting pretty babbly just gonna stop typing and hit it

lol

stephin merritt cruised a guy off of jeopardy. what a legend pic.twitter.com/gmnpyhtbV7

— chat noir 🙀 (@zrok_) November 14, 2018

also xpost but i find the more "spacious" acoustic production of much of 69 love songs to sound much "cheaper" or just tackier in its way than the stovepot wall of sound he got with a bunch of synths on the earlier stuff.

I settled on these five albums.

No Holiday? Sixths?

No Holiday, and The 6ths work in isolation

Jim and William Reid never recorded a lo-fi record that didn’t peter out after the record’s lone “Just Like Honey” or “Happy When It Rains.”

umm, trying to disentangle this..

I listened once again to 69, around 5 years since the last time, over two days. Because it can be done.

I made a start on 50, I think it needs to be taken five songs at a time. I'm going "mmm/mmm/Yeah/mmm/Yeah" or some variant.

I swallowed it in smaller chunks.

"i" might be my fave 21st-century one

1. Holiday
2. 69 Love Songs
3. Get Lost
4. The Charm of the Highway Strip
5. The Wayward Bus
6. Distortion

Gave 50 a number of tries, but it doesn't work for me at all. Even the songs I liked I liked hearing exactly once.

But then I'm weird, because I also think that, much like The Magnetic Fields, the Reid Bros have made 5 records that are better than Distortion.

I prefer their comp, a glory.

That’s a good list. However, the wayward bus maybe should be higher due to 100,000 fireflies, merritt’s best song.

I really like i, and think The 6ths records are kind of overrated (but "Movies In My Head" is top 5 SM songs for me)

I totally agree.

“You don’t hold a candle to the movies in my head” is brutal

i has my favourite ever couple of couplets too:

So you quote love unquote me
Well, stranger things have come to be
But let's agree to disagree
Cause I don't believe you
I don't believe you

You tell me I'm not not cute
Its truth or falsity is moot
Cause honesty's not your strong suit
And I don't believe you
I don't believe you

i is so underrated, love that album to pieces (the weak tracks on it are especially weak, though, which may be why it never makes these types of lists)

we made the Shaggs sound like Yes

I don't really know Magnetic Field too much, but saw this pre-MF band Buffalo Rome show from 1988 pop up and it sounds pretty great, especially the song around 5:10 ("Yellow Bird"?) Maybe some of these became Magnetic Field songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdqpW-uE64&t=1943s

gah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdqpW-uE64

!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!! Wow. Yes - that song you mentioned became "Take Ecstasy with Me" recorded by The Magnetic Fields. There are some Zinnias songs in the set: "Leeches", "Kings" (later recorded by MF), "Otters" (part of "Otters" was used in the MF track "Jeremy"). Apparently they sing/play "Plant White Roses" backwards, according to the YT comment?! "Railroad Boy" and "Josephine" were later recorded by MF, too. Also played is "The Tiny Goat" later recorded by the Gothic Archies (who I am seeing tomorrow in NYC). Also, that's Susan Anway on lead vocals, right?!?! On the far left is Johny Blood, who plays tuba in MF. So I think Stephin was 23 and Claudia was 20 in that video (and she was attending Harvard at the time, I think). And then at the end, the announcer says that Jad Fair is coming up next!

yes thanks! I perked up at the proto-"Take Ecstasy" too

Wow.

https://pitchfork.com/news/the-magnetic-fields-announce-new-album-quickies-share-video-for-new-song-watch/

The Magnetic Fields have announced a new collection called Quickies. It features 28 new short songs by Stephin Merritt that are all under three minutes long. Quickies will be released across five vinyl EPs on May 15 via Nonesuch. It’ll also be available digitally and on a single CD. Watch the new video for “The Day the Politicians Died” below.

The band has also announced a series of intimate residency performances at City Winery venues across the country. Find those dates below.

Stephin Merritt is joined on Quickies by his bandmates Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo. Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman also appear on the collection. Merritt discussed the album’s concept in a statement:

I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long.

Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row.

Merritt’s previous Magnetic Fields album was 2017’s 50 Song Memoir. Listen to Pitchfork’s 2017 In Sight Out podcast with Stephin Merritt.

Quickies:

01 Castles of America
02 The Biggest Tits in History
03 The Day the Politicians Died
04 Castle Down a Dirt Road
05 Bathroom Quickie
06 My Stupid Boyfriend
07 Love Gone Wrong
08 Favorite Bar
09 Kill a Man a Week
10 Kraftwerk in a Blackout
11 When She Plays the Toy Piano
12 Death Pact (Let’s Make A)
13 I’ve Got a Date with Jesus
14 Come, Life, Shaker Life!
15 (I Want to Join A) Biker Gang
16 Rock ‘n’ Roll Guy
17 You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub
18 Let’s Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)
19 The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee
20 When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit
21 The Price You Pay
22 The Boy in the Corner
23 Song of the Ant
24 I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail
25 Evil Rhythm
26 She Says Hello
27 The Little Robot Girl
28 I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again

How has Stephin Merritt not released an album titled "High Concept" yet?

That list of song titles would be just as believable in a Sparks thread.

Even at 1:49, the new song feels too long.

Some promising titles in there, but "The Day the Politicians Died" definitely doesn't live up to its.

He probably could have just released a track list and skipped the music part.

Fido, your songs are too short.

Some very provocative titles here, though

Fido, your songs are too short.

worked for Bob Pollard

I want to join a biker gang
I want to be in a gang bang
I like my empty life but dang
I want to join a biker gang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0eYO2cg9jA

LD Beghtol has passed:

Rest In Peace, LD Beghtol. I’m sorry we never finished our collaboration. pic.twitter.com/6zLbkAi6ZK

— 50PoundNote (Jeb) (@50_pound_note) December 8, 2020

Oh no :(

Is there any other info (or context/confirmation) beyond this single tweet? I can't find anything.

I know Jeb and trust him as the source -- LD was apparently found in his apartment but there's no other details. Apparently he did catch COVID in summer, hopefully this wasn't something related to that.

(That further info from Jeb directly.)

Thanks... how sad

I will forever cherish "All My Little Words." Just too sad.

Ah crap. One of my favorite gigs of all-time was the two-day complete "69 Love Songs". It was such an incredibly joyful experience, Claudia was radiating happiness and fun.

Any of LD's other vocal work recommended?

You could check out Flare if you like 'twee chamber pop' of any description
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPLBPOIP1xI

His 33⅓ on 69 is good.

listened to "all my little words" for the first time in forever when i saw this news. i think there's still no one i would trust more to do a perfect 2 and a half minutes.

really sad about this, it's hard to process. his voice & presence on those songs (thinking of "My Sentimental Melody" too) meant so much, more than I ever consciously realized.

"All My Little Words" is so simple but so perfect. RIP

I've at last fully listened to the CD of QUICKIES (2020).

An observation: every one of the 28 songs is a comedy song. We expect irony and drollery from Merritt. But amid the jokes I might also have expected a 30-second flash of plaintive pathos, or 48 seconds of surprisingly raw emotion set to a toy piano. He doesn't deliver that here. It's all black comedy.

I still rather like the way that he uses old-school syntactical precision, in a way unlike anyone else in pop - so that the words in a pop song have the grammar of, say, an article in a 1950s literary journal (if not something much older like Hazlitt or Hawthorne). Indeed I sense that this is something that's developed over Merritt's career - you really don't hear it so much in the 1990s work; it's really only noticeable more recently.