Embedded Files
DISCOGRAPHY
Distant Plastic Trees (1991) 6.5/10
The Wayward Bus (1992) 7/10
The House of Tomorrow (EP, 1992) 7/10
Holiday (1993) 7/10
Charm of the Highway Strip (1994) 8/10
Get Lost (1995) 7/10
6ths: Wasps' Nest (1995) 6/10
Future Bible Heroes: Memories of Love (1997) 5/10
Gothic Archies: The New Despair (EP, 1997) 6/10 +
69 Love Songs (1999) 7/10
6ths: Hyacinths and Thistles (2000) 6/10
Future Bible Heroes: Eternal Youth (2002) 5/10
Stephin Merritt: Eban & Charley (soundtrack, 2002) 4/10
Stephin Merritt: The Orphan of Zhao (2003)
i (2004) 6/10
Stephin Merritt: My Life as a Fairy Tale (2005)
Gothic Archies: Tragic Treasury (2006) 6/10
Stephin Merritt: Peach Blossom Fan (2006)
Distortion (2007) 5.5/10
Realism (2009) 5/10
Love at the Bottom of the Sea (2012) 4.5/10
Future Bible Heroes: Partygoing (2013) 4.5/10
50 Song Memoir (2017) 5/10
Quickies (2020) 4/10
The Charm of the Highway Strip works with garish synth timbres like a toybox, creating this childish playfulness to contrast with Merritt's miserably low moans.
Rock critic Robert Christgau would write that it's "like something conceived by a Martian who'd read about country music... but didn't happen to own any guitars."
50 Song Memoir was an "epic" concept album akin to 69 Love Songs, in which Merritt wrote a song for each year of his life starting from 1966 (not the year he was born but the year after, so I guess only full years count).
Although it had its moments, ultimately the album was an interesting idea that failed to realize its potential.
Finally out of the "no-synth" trilogy, Love at the Bottom of the Sea makes a return for the electronics, but with disappointing results, as if the band or Merritt forgot how to arrange the material without accidental self-parody.
In fact, it seems as if the Magnetic Fields were so excited to reincorporate the synth that they over-compensated for the last three albums. The dance qualities are exaggerated to embarrassing degrees in tracks like Infatuation, where the hook suffers a likeness to Styx's Mr. Roboto, or the cheesy beats on God Wants Us To Wait, Your Girlfriend's Face, and My Husband's Pied-à-Terre. The indulgence is so baffling that the lyrics to Goin Back to the Country ("I'm sick of that 120 BPM funk and disco") are terribly ironic.
However, what the record does provide is one of Merritt's funniest love songs, Andrew in Drag, and the sentimental (albeit underwhelming) I'd Go Anywhere with Hugh. And for those who can stomach the dance-pop cheese, there are some infectious melodies to be scavenged in tracks like Quick, I Don't Like Your Tone, or The Machine in Your Hand. There is even novelty to be found in the closer All She Cares About Is Mariachi, but ultimately these are all small achievements for a fatally forgettable album.
Quickies is perhaps the most lifeless collection of Merritt's songwriting, though mostly due to the album's concept of them all being very short (which seems to be a choice of laziness, as several songs are a standard length of two minutes versus the occasional thirty second one). Melodies like Castles of America could have been on 69 Love Songs if it was only longer. The Day the Politicians Died is even a lyrical keeper, but could have used a less barebones arrangement.
The marks of a signature Merritt song are present: heavily-reverbed chamber pop with witty/cute lyricism. But the instrumental eclecticism is mostly deja vu for devoted listeners (often a piano, acoustic guitar, ukulele, or autoharp... which we've heard before). Some of the comedy works, but can be more awkward than funny (notably Bathroom Quickie). Worst of all though is that the melodies are ineffective — which is usually Merritt's specialty.
To be kind, I could say some arrangements of interest are the horns complementing the synthesizer on Biker Gang, the ethereal accordions on Bathroom Quickie, and the chiming soundscape for I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again; but these would not be notable on any other album. Even Love at the Bottom of the Sea had Andrew in Drag, but there are basically no keepers here.
TOP 10 SONGS
6ths: Movies In My Head (1995)
Sunset City (1994)
No One Will Ever Love You (1999)
Lonely Highway (1994)
I Don't Believe in the Sun (1999)
Two Characters in Search of a Country Song (1994)
Born on a Train (1994)
Strange Powers (1993)
When the Open Road Is Closing In (1994)
Save a Secret for the Moon (1995)
(see my Spotify playlist for them all) - link
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