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.
― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy), Saturday, 17 November 2018 05:30 (five years ago) link
I settled on these five albums.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 02:20 (five years ago) link
No Holiday? Sixths?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 02:35 (five years ago) link
No Holiday, and The 6ths work in isolation
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 02:58 (five years ago) link
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..
― Mark G, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 11:55 (five years ago) link
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.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 11:58 (five years ago) link
I swallowed it in smaller chunks.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 12:06 (five years ago) link
"i" might be my fave 21st-century one
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 12:14 (five years ago) link
1. Holiday2. 69 Love Songs3. Get Lost4. The Charm of the Highway Strip5. The Wayward Bus6. 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.
― dorsalstop, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 12:16 (five years ago) link
I prefer their comp, a glory.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 12:19 (five years ago) link
That’s a good list. However, the wayward bus maybe should be higher due to 100,000 fireflies, merritt’s best song.
― Trϵϵship, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 13:28 (five years ago) link
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)
― flamboyant goon tie included, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 15:14 (five years ago) link
I totally agree.
“You don’t hold a candle to the movies in my head” is brutal
― Trϵϵship, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 15:17 (five years ago) link
i has my favourite ever couple of couplets too:
So you quote love unquote meWell, stranger things have come to beBut let's agree to disagreeCause I don't believe youI don't believe you
You tell me I'm not not cuteIts truth or falsity is mootCause honesty's not your strong suitAnd I don't believe youI don't believe you
― flamboyant goon tie included, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 15:21 (five years ago) link
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)
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 15:56 (five years ago) link
we made the Shaggs sound like Yes
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 22 December 2018 13:44 (five years ago) link
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
― city worker, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 15:03 (four years ago) link
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!
― ernestp, Thursday, 12 December 2019 02:09 (four years ago) link
yes thanks! I perked up at the proto-"Take Ecstasy" too
― insecurity bear (sic), Thursday, 12 December 2019 02:18 (four years ago) link
Wow.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 12 December 2019 02:49 (four years ago) link
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 America02 The Biggest Tits in History03 The Day the Politicians Died04 Castle Down a Dirt Road05 Bathroom Quickie06 My Stupid Boyfriend07 Love Gone Wrong08 Favorite Bar09 Kill a Man a Week10 Kraftwerk in a Blackout11 When She Plays the Toy Piano12 Death Pact (Let’s Make A)13 I’ve Got a Date with Jesus14 Come, Life, Shaker Life!15 (I Want to Join A) Biker Gang16 Rock ‘n’ Roll Guy17 You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub18 Let’s Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)19 The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee20 When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit21 The Price You Pay22 The Boy in the Corner23 Song of the Ant24 I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail25 Evil Rhythm26 She Says Hello27 The Little Robot Girl28 I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again
― cajunsunday, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 17:57 (four years ago) link
How has Stephin Merritt not released an album titled "High Concept" yet?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 18:06 (four years ago) link
That list of song titles would be just as believable in a Sparks thread.
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 18:35 (four years ago) link
Even at 1:49, the new song feels too long.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 18:53 (four years ago) link
Some promising titles in there, but "The Day the Politicians Died" definitely doesn't live up to its.
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 20:27 (four years ago) link
He probably could have just released a track list and skipped the music part.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 20:31 (four years ago) link
Fido, your songs are too short.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 20:34 (four years ago) link
Some very provocative titles here, though
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 26 February 2020 00:41 (four years ago) link
worked for Bob Pollard
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 01:03 (four years ago) link
I want to join a biker gangI want to be in a gang bangI like my empty life but dangI want to join a biker gang
― ... (Eazy), Saturday, 18 April 2020 03:49 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0eYO2cg9jA
― ... (Eazy), Saturday, 18 April 2020 14:34 (four years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:13 (three years ago) link
Oh no :(
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:18 (three years ago) link
Is there any other info (or context/confirmation) beyond this single tweet? I can't find anything.
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:25 (three years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:30 (three years ago) link
(That further info from Jeb directly.)
Thanks... how sad
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:33 (three years ago) link
I will forever cherish "All My Little Words." Just too sad.
― TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 20:21 (three years ago) link
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?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 21:24 (three years ago) link
You could check out Flare if you like 'twee chamber pop' of any descriptionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPLBPOIP1xI
― Lamont Dozier Dream House (Deflatormouse), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 02:41 (three years ago) link
His 33⅓ on 69 is good.
― huge rant (sic), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:13 (three years ago) link
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.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:25 (three years ago) link
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.
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:55 (three years ago) link
"All My Little Words" is so simple but so perfect. RIP
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 05:10 (three years ago) link
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.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 14 August 2021 10:49 (two years ago) link
That's kind of how I described this album to a friend a few weeks ago. Every song is a little joke, but none of them are particularly funny. And maaaaybe you get a little of that old Merritt pathos in "She Says Hello," but that's the only thing close to a keeper here for me.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Monday, 16 August 2021 18:08 (two years ago) link
Every song is a little joke, but none of them are particularly funny.
I feel like his stuff always had this quality tbh
― Dexter Holland's Opus (Deflatormouse), Monday, 16 August 2021 19:59 (two years ago) link
I mean I think he's brilliant but there's always been this sense that they think their jokes are a lot funnier than they actually are, that's not a recent development.
― Dexter Holland's Opus (Deflatormouse), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:02 (two years ago) link
I think it's a gradual mutation that's gotten them to this point, where the songs are all joke, no ache. They were most of the way there with Love at the Bottom of the Sea, and then Bob Hurwitz from Nonesuch pitched Merritt the 50 Song Memoir concept, which helped stall the transformation (I always imagine this was Hurwitz's intention), but now here we are with Quickies.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Monday, 16 August 2021 21:44 (two years ago) link