Onto 'i'. Replacing almost all the synths with that prissy little string section is an unconscionable aesthetic choice, regardless of the songwriting (which is middling, if subdued)
― imago, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 13:54 (two years ago) link
congrats you've turned into Neil Hannon!!
― imago, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 13:55 (two years ago) link
Where before when he used a harpsichord it contributed imaginatively to an unusual and captivating sound-world, here on In An Operetta I want to take a fucking sledgehammer to the thing
― imago, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 14:03 (two years ago) link
I now understand a) why the fans felt let down by his post-69LS (which is a masterpiece next to this no matter how you otherwise regard it) material and b) why his new stuff passes completely under the radar. If it's even worse than this!
― imago, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 14:05 (two years ago) link
I'm sure I've mentioned it on this or some other MF thread, but I feel like he lost something when everything became so overtly high concept. Like he needed a frame for inspiration, or perhaps as a lazy crutch. Certainly Merritt's (earned) reputation as a contemptuous curmudgeon has done him no favors. That used to be part of his appeal live, but then it just got kind of old, and a little tedious. When they toured through here last I had a friend (who is peripherally in their circle) who texted that I really should check them out these days, because they'd turned a corner and were more "on" then they had been in a few years.
BTW, sonic comparison to Burning Blue Soul is kind of otm. Like rickety kitchen sink bedroom production.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 14:18 (two years ago) link
going through youtube, the live performances in the last few years do seem to have gone up a notch. they've brought back some of the synths & electric guitar & drum machines that they'd steadily avoided live for years due to merritt's hearing problems, so they must have found a way to make that work at last.
― ufo, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 14:22 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1iKcd7PGA
― ufo, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 14:27 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHldXhiowDY
― ufo, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 14:35 (two years ago) link
On the 50 Song Memoir tour he was in a kind of soundproof booth (fairly inconspicuous as part of the set), which allowed the band to approximate the album's instrumentation around him, and it was thrilling for me to finally see them perform live with synths, even if it was just songs from, you know, 50 Song Memoir. Merritt wasn't even part of the Future Bible Heroes tour a few years earlier.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 15:16 (two years ago) link
Lmao, that's the up a notch stuff? Christ
Distortion is an effort to bring a different sort of sonic density back. It fails as it's already been done better, despite the odd nice moment
― imago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 15:47 (two years ago) link
they've been entirely acoustic live for ages, bringing back the drum machine makes a big difference!
― ufo, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:04 (two years ago) link
When did they ever have a drum machine? All the times I saw them relatively early Claudia was playing drums. A la this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzmQg15Mf58
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:36 (two years ago) link
Yeah Claudia was always the drummer! Is she not now?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:44 (two years ago) link
I think it was around "Get Lost" when they dropped the drums, she switched to piano and they went full chamber-pop.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:48 (two years ago) link
I'm not going to try and psychoanalyse Realism, but the extent of its regression to campfire twee - the sheer truculence of its withdrawal from anything resembling depth or complexity - is almost charming
― imago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:51 (two years ago) link
Neurodivergent songwriters are often expected to cleave to expected paths of progress, development, complication and so forth, and when they don't, people often turn on them, as I've kind of been doing, but I'm gonna hand it to Merritt here, he's doing whatever the fuck he wants and trashing the brand, well fine y'know, fine
― imago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:53 (two years ago) link
well i mean from the studio versions, they very rarely had live drums on record in the first place in the 90s
― ufo, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 16:55 (two years ago) link
oh my god
― imago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 17:08 (two years ago) link
I wasn't ready for how well my Realism comments paved the way for Love At The Bottom Of The Sea
he is unchained. unburdened. free
this is GLORIOUS omg
yep, on second listen I think I can firmly establish my great TMF trilogy: Charm, Holiday, Sea
I do not expect to be liked, nor understood, but there it is
― imago, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 17:57 (two years ago) link
Neurodivergent songwriters
????
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 24 February 2022 17:43 (two years ago) link
He has said that he may be on the autism spectrum.[29][30]
― imago, Thursday, 24 February 2022 17:46 (two years ago) link
have slightly calmed down re: LATBOTS - it isn't as good as the prime stuff, but I still find it a strikingly effective expression of creative freedom and full of little sonic delights
― imago, Thursday, 24 February 2022 17:47 (two years ago) link
Oh I didn't know that about Merritt
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 24 February 2022 17:50 (two years ago) link
good post that explains my great liking for Holiday - it isn't 'well recorded' or expensive-sounding (69LS feels MUCH more expensive) but it is a bedroom synth-layering masterpieceif anything, The Charm... has an even more astonishing sound-world, with a sort of bizarro alt-country thrown in amongst the twinkling, meshing anti-popOTM, those are def my two favorite MF records for similar reasons, followed closely by Distortion, which is I think a perfect execution of its concept (Stephin Merritt songs + the sonic palette of Psychocandy)
― J. Sam, Thursday, 24 February 2022 18:13 (two years ago) link
Lots of people say this - about themselves and others.
It may be wise to be cautious and circumspect in applying these terms to people when full diagnoses are not available.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 24 February 2022 19:22 (two years ago) link
idk, cinical diagnostic criteria for most spectrum disorders were not available until very recently, so lots of adults who showed obvious spectrum traits as children went undiagnosed. if there are adults who believe they fit the profile & it helps explain challenges they have faced or continue to face & self-identify as being on the spectrum, but have little incentive to seek a formal diagnosis, then there's no need to be overly circumspect in applying these terms imo.
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Friday, 25 February 2022 00:05 (two years ago) link
Finding 50 Song Memoir to be grand fun
― imago, Wednesday, 9 March 2022 19:37 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I kind of love it now. Particularly the stretch from Hustle 76 to Dreaming in Tetris, which is almost 100% solid, but there some winners on either side of that too.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Wednesday, 9 March 2022 20:29 (two years ago) link
"'69: Judy Garland" is great; I play it for my Gay Life & Culture class when I cover Stonewall.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 9 March 2022 20:36 (two years ago) link
Had a blast seeing them in Amsterdam yesterday. Claudia isn't there for this tour and that did feel like a gap on stage but the instrumentation was excellent nevertheless. They played 30 songs in one and a half hour (obviously including several short songs from Quickies, but most of their songs aren't long anyway), I was pleasantly surprised with some excellent picks from Holiday: Desert Island, The Flowers She Sent & The Flowers She Said She Sent; Take Ecstasy With Me - so good!
― Valentijn, Monday, 12 September 2022 11:26 (one year ago) link
Someone posted their first show from 1990 recently (as well as another from 1990 on their channel)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn8OrCNapZQ
― city worker, Friday, 30 September 2022 12:34 (one year ago) link
Wow, thanks!! Other early live TMF videos from that same uploader:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvRRPNhkKo4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0hcyZ0ep0w
And there's even a little TMF after this Swirlies show (the link brings you right to the TMF stuff):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-N73NEMlAc
So in addition to Stephin, Claudia and Sam, I think that's Johny Blood on tuba (only in the "first show" video), Nell Beram on guitar, and Phylene Amuso on bass.
― ernestp, Saturday, 1 October 2022 03:25 (one year ago) link
Ah that last video (Swirlies) should've started at 38:58 - so just go to that time for the TMF content.
― ernestp, Saturday, 1 October 2022 03:27 (one year ago) link
!!!
EXCITING NEWS! In celebration of the 25th anniversary of 69 Love Songs, we'll be doing a limited run of shows next year in which we will perform all 69 songs in order over 2-night residencies in March-April 2024. Sign up for the presale now: https://t.co/IDdshJvOVQ pic.twitter.com/yFBO1n99v0— The Magnetic Fields (@TheMagFields) June 22, 2023
― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Thursday, 22 June 2023 17:49 (ten months ago) link
Sadly no LD Beghtol, who died in 2020. Did they ever say what happened, Covid or something else?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 23 June 2023 00:25 (ten months ago) link
Never saw cause of death spelled out
https://www.chickfactor.com/rip-ld-beghtol-splendid-butterfly/
― curmudgeon, Friday, 23 June 2023 15:39 (ten months ago) link