Reviews (page 2 of 8)
Usually I'm very against long albums but I kinda liked it this time. Reminds me of TMBG
The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing
Is it just me or is the second half of this (tracks 36-69) notably better than the first 35? Or was it just how/when I listened to them — the first half this morning and the second this afternoon? I was going to give this a 3 this morning but the afternoon was a 4 so I’m calling this a 3.5 and will round it up to 4. Generally I love the vibe throughout all this and while I overall would have preferred catchier melodies, there were very few clunker songs.
The Book of Love is such a beautiful song. The big issue is, the album lasts 3 hours. It could have the greatest songs of all-time and 3 hours is far too long. Ideally I listen to these albums 4 times. If I listened to this 4 times, it would literally be 90% of the time im awake. I won't be able to listen to it twice and despite the quality I wouldn't want to Disc 1 on its own is great Love like Jazz sucks No One Will Ever Love You is really good Disc 2 is more upbeat. Very intriguing Disc 2 is actually better than disc 1. Insane how good this when the length is so unappealing
I've always been a fan of They Might Be Giants so the idea of lots of genre-hopping, short, silly and sometimes dark songs doesn't deter me. However, the sheer length of this thing makes it almost impossible to absorb in one sitting and review coherently. I liked a lot of the songs on here and the often wry observation of different foibles of love and you have to admire the sheer ambition of it, but I also do wish it was somehow trimmed down. None of the 69 songs are quite as good as God Wants Us To Wait from the album they brought out about a decade later.
I really liked sweet lovin man, I didn’t see much reception for it but I really liked that one. Papa was a rodeo which I did see love for is incredible too! 4/5
The f*cking temerity. What collection of troll critics landed this three hour long concept album on this list. I have lots to do today...guess the majority of this Saturday will be spent getting my business accounts all balanced whilst pining for love like a beheaded fowl. It's fine. F*ck. Turns out it's still a really interesting if resentable album.
Do your stretches before diving into this record—the ultimate love letter to love letters—and don't be surprised if your heart stretches in turn by the time you finally reach its end.
It's an ambitious project. It really showcases Stephin Merritt's range and songwriting abilities. The modern, thoughtful and often humorous takes on the subject produces some great songs, focused on many different kinds of love. But it's a tall order to produce a triple album based on a simple concept, without ending up with a lot of filler. As enjoyable as it is at points, it's a slough to listen to the entire thing. It's a missed opportunity to be honest. If Merritt could have whittled this down to a single disc of the best 20 or so songs, it would have an amazing album. Save the rest for a special expanded edition, maybe. As it is, it's a good album, but it's just too bloated. The novelty of the length is too much of a gimmicky distraction and disservice to what could have been a great album.
Good tunes, lyrics, and melodies. I get why it's an indie rock classic. Could have used some editing, definitely doesn't need to be so long. Merritt's voice is definitely a love it/hate it instrument. But, if nothing else, you have to admire the album's sprawl, and there are good songs throughout.
This is some theater kid shit. Some great songs from what I listened to but I just cannot possibly do 3 hours of it.
Boy, they were really committed to including 69 in the title. There are enough good songs here to make one really decent album, or a slightly patchy double, but at this length and with the throwaways that sound like someone improvising on TikTok, it’s bordering on an endurance test. That makes it hard to grade, but I'll go 3 for the good album that's fighting to get out.
Once my apoplexy settled, I began listening and realised that I would have a much better time appreciating this as a work of conceptual art rather than something so gauche as a triple album of adult nursery songs. White Cubing it made the record decent company for two long commute rides and the spreadsheet I’m finishing while I write this. 69LS wears its beret even in the title, which has the right vibe of self-conscious smugness and defensive self-deprecation; while the song-elements of the work are not to my taste, their arrangement is intelligent, these components distinguishing themselves sufficiently to intrude on my consciousness with various novelties, like an electronic seagull riff or the faux jazz part or gentle verbal smart arsery. My notes coalesce around “Christian Marclay remakes “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” from a thousand outtakes of John Candy talking, preceded by a title card reading “You are the Steve Martin”.” Simon, I couldn’t resist reading your tirade before writing. What did the family think of this experiment?
No. 216/1001 Absolutley Cuckoo 3/5 I Don't Believe In The Sun 4/5 All My Little Words 4/5 A Chicken With It's Head Cut Off 3/5 Reno Dakota 3/5 I Don't Want To Get Over You 3/5 Come Back From San Francisco 3/5 The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side 3/5 Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits 2/5 The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be 2/5 I Think I Need A New Heart 3/5 The Book Of Love 3/5 Fido 2/5 How Fuckin Romantic 2/5 The One You Really Love 3/5 Punk Love 2/5 Parades Go By 3/5 Boa Constrictor 3/5 A Pretty Girl Is Like 2/5 My Sentimental Melody 3/5 Nothing Matters 3/5 Sweet Loving Man 4/5 The Things We Did And Didn't Do 3/5 Roses 2/5 Love is Like Jazz 1/5 When My Boy 4/5 Time Enough 3/4 Very Funny 3/5 Grand Canyon 3/5 No One Will Ever Love You 3/5 If You Don't Cry 3/5 You're My Only Home 3/5 Not That Crazy 2/5 My Only Friend 3/5 Promises of Eternity 2/5 World Love 3/5 Washington D.C. 3/5 Long-Forgotten Fairytale 3/5 Kiss Me Like You Mean It 3/5 Papa Was A Rodeo 3/5 Epitaph for my Heart 3/5 Asleep and Dreaming 3/5 The Sun Goes Down 3/5 The Way You Say Good-Night 2/5 Abigail, Belle of Kilronan 4/5 I Shatter 2/5 Underwear 2/5 It's A Crime 2/5 Busby Berkeley Dreams 3/5 I'm Sorry I Love You 3/5 Acoustic Guitar 3/5 The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure 4/5 Love in the Shadows 2/5 Bitter Tears 3/5 Wi' Nae 2/5 Yeah! Oh, Yeah! 3/5 Experimental Music Love 2/5 Meaningless 3/5 Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin 3/5 Queen of the Savages 3/5 Blue You 2/5 I Can't Touch You Anymore 2/5 Two Kinds Of People 2/5 Here To Say Goodbye 3/5 The Night You Can't Remember 3/5 For We Are The King Of The Boudoir 2/5 Strange Eyes 2/5 Xylophone Tracks 2/5 Zebra 2/5 Average: 2,72 This album proofs that quality is more important than quantity.
Heureusement que je n'avais rien d'autre à faire que d'exercer ma profession pendant l'écoute de cet album sinon je l'aurais trouvé interminable. On est tout simplement pris en otage pour une durée de 2h52 à écouter 69 ballades de post-dépucelage-indie contoctées par l'affreux Robert.
Ce qui ne fait pas l'ombre d'un doute, c'est que cet album était affreusement long. Il rejoint ainsi The Gershwin Book dans la prestigieux caste des 1001 albums à écouter avant de mourir si vous avez beaucoup de temps.
Sure, there are some lovely songs in here. There’s plenty of rubbish songs too. It’s just too long, I will never complain about a double album again
Why write 10-12 really good songs when you could write 69 mediocre ones? I was actually enjoying the album at first, but it gradually lost its charm for me, particularly while trying to get through the last third tonight. There were some truly irritating songs throughout, but also a lot of decent ones. I lost the ability to focus on the smaller details of songs, so they all blended together by the end, except for the really bad ones. I did enjoy how deep Stephin's voice is though. His voice also at times reminded me of H. Jon Benjamin who voices Bob from Bob's Burgers, which I found amusing. There was one song that almost sounded like Bob and Tina singing a duet lol. I will say that I liked the few popular tracks from the album: All My Little Words, I Don't Want to Get Over You, I Think I Need a New Heart and The Book of Love. They all sound like they'd be in an indie movie, in a good way. I can see why they have millions of listens while all of the other songs have thousands or even only hundreds of listens (on YouTube Music). I would not be able to convince myself to listen through this again and a lot of it wasn't even worth listening through once. 4/10.
Voices were mostly pleasant and a lot of the songs were somewhat enjoyable, but the album commits the cardinal sin of being forgettable while its being listened to. On more than one occasion i had to check to see if my player had screwed up reset to the beginning of the album cuz so many songs were too similar. Add on that this behemoth is 3 hours long.... like why? Just because you can do a 3 hour album doesn't mean you should. While ive forgotten a lot of the albums ive listened to on this project,very few were forgettable whilst being actively listened to. I couldn't tell you which songs were actually enjoyable. They weren't that remarkable to begin with but the fact so much was same same makes everything worse. Album could've been a 4 if the more unique songs were cherry picked and released as a more typical album.
Definitely quantity over quality.. why does this exist on this list?
A lot of mediocre songs.
This the second longest thing that I gave it a try and regret it... The most longest still remains One Piece (anime obv).. Jokes aside, the tracks in this album are average to good and some are really good. But if I put these songs in an album of 69 tracks, they'll all seem same to me. Also just for the sake to include 69 tracks in the album, they made random 'filler' songs with 1-2 mins which I see no point of making it. And why there's a song on Washington DC in a love album lmao. This album might've worked for me if it had 10-15 tracks on album. But listening to this 69 tracks album is extremely tiring. I'd rather listen to a lofi playlist. Not 'nice' 2.5/5
Sometimes a songwriter hits such an inspired patch, the only showcase for their talents lies in a double-album (George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” & Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Colie…” spring to mind). By that logic, this 3 hour long behemoth from Magnetic Fields might suggest a frenzied spell of prodigious creativity unheard of in music. Alas, this is album is about 60 songs too long. It represents the sort of mechanical approach to songwriting directly anathema to the spontaneous creativity which defines all great art. Stephen Merritt’s process consisted of blurting out some random phrase and proceeding to force a chorus out of it. It’s an extremely rudimentary style of songwriting, and utterly pretentious for the first hour or so of utterly expendable cornball indie-pop tunes. I generally found it easy to tune out of this record, only occasionally jarred into some sort of irate state by the odd plagal cadence (a serious bugbear of mine, but a favourite among jerkoff professional music eccentrics). Like I say, the gargantuan length is not a problem per se, but it can’t be filled by such pretentious claptrap. With so much shit thrown at the wall here, some of it naturally sticks. Dare I say, there is actually the makings of a decent album here (or, on second thoughts, maybe an EP). The female vocalist on this album tends to take the lead on the majority of decent cuts. But on the whole this is a pretty loathsome attempt at dragging pop music behind a fortified wall of music snobs. So I’ll sum it up in a word: pish. Favourite tracks: “I’m Sorry I Love You”; “Crazy for You”; “If You Don’t Cry”
No surprise that Love Is Like Jazz, an improvisational jazz tune, is my least favorite song. Although there is definitely worse singing on many other tracks, which also displease me. I was going to write about how insane one would have to be to think a 69 song, 2 hour 53 minute album is a good idea. But then I remembered that many people are involved in creating an album. So there had to have been several insane people involved here. I shouldn’t write insane people, that would be capricious name calling, but rather collective insane thought. SeLF EDiT PeOPLe!!!! For the love of all that is sacred, self edit. There are plenty of tracks I really like here, at least an album’s worth. It’s too damn exhausting to go back through this album and figure out which ones so I can convey them to you. As it turns out, this was originally 100 songs!!!!f*$k!!!! To their credit, they decided that 100 was too many and cut it down to 69 songs. Way to miss the mark. The range of song writing is commendable. Their are a wide variety of styles and voicings, which isn’t easy to pull off. As it stands, I’m turning this album off if it’s on. Maybe not right away, but eventually I’d hear more than one grating song in a row. Power button. With pROpeR self editing, this has 4, and maybe even 5, star potential if the best 30-35 minutes were chosen. 5 stars would likely be too generous, and if I were a dedicated reviewer, I would pick apart this album until I identified those top 10-12 songs to be sure. However, that would require enduring a plethora of exhaustion that I am not willing to suffer.
I can hear the demonstrable talent and skill in their music, and some of the tracks are musically interesting, but the vocals in both presentation and content feel too gimmicky for my personal taste.
Saved Prior: I Think I Need a New Heart Saved Off Rip: A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off Cutting Edge: a couple I have to go back through and pick Overall Notes: Very very long, didn't really have time to go through and truly listen to all of the songs as I am currently quite busy. An album I will be returning to in the summer when I have more time (hopefully). Placeholder grade of 2.
Some gems on this - really lovely songs - but overall just too damn long. Yes, I get the point.
Fuck off
Never felt so much hate listening to love songs. Why 69? Why 3 hours and a half?
I don't actually know if I made it to the end of this one but the thought of going back to try and find out fills mw with dread so I'm gunna say good enough.
2 hours & 52 minutes of lethargic, monotonous nasal vocals that was truly a waste of time. I found nothing creative, satisfying or remotely rewarding listening to any of the 69 songs. Why I needed to hear this album before I die is a mystery to me.
Strange music.
Imagine the level of self-worship that it takes to think you can write 69 love songs and put them all on an album. This same someone clearly never heard the phrase “less is more.” I wouldn’t want to listen to this many love songs all at once by someone with talent like Freddie Mercury or David Bowie so this album never stood a chance. It took three sittings to finish and at no point was I enjoying myself.
I was dreading this and it lived down to my prejudice. I love "The Charm of the Highway Strip" and "Get Lost", but you can't even cut the highlights of this debacle down to a single album that would be of remotely similar quality. The definition of indulgence, and a real puzzle to understand who has the time for it [EDIT - I made it all the way through ONCE AGAIN and hate its pointless filler half-arsed improv bad showtune-ass bullshit even more. Sorry, Stephin - this is now downgraded even further in line with my tally of only 4 worthy tunes (5% - wtf!!!) adrift in a sea of absolute drivel]
If you have enough time to write, record, mix, and release 69 love songs, you have too much time on your hands. Get a job ya hippy
AGHHH NOOO what is this oh my no his voice made me cry his lyrics made me sob the length made me DIE. not anything good came out of this.
it’s morbid, it‘s goofy, it‘s romantic, it‘s cynical, it‘s morose, it‘s cheesy, it‘s smart, it‘s dumb, it‘s a lot
I actually really like some of this. Very stripped back and honest. But my lord is there a lot of it. There's a large part of disc 3 where you just want it to end - things do improve slightly though. The filler is atrocious, but the highs are so high.
What a clever, weird, beautiful ride. 5/5
well, how the hell are we supposed to listen to this in one day?!?! but, another great “album” i've not listened to in forever. so, i'm happy to dig back onto this gem
5 very bright stars, thank you for sharing RGP, clearly 69 songs is a lot of songs and the quality not to mention the politics dips over the course of 2 hours 52 minutes but the great songs remain great. Sadly and strangely much like Johnny Marr and Camper Van Beethoven, nothing else Steve M has done comes close to his most perfect work. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️👏👏👏👏👏 Tom.
One of my all-time favorite albums. Heartbreaking, clever, sweet, sad, and beautiful. So many great songs. And the length is the point. A great 3 CD experience.
These love songs are anything but typical.. they're more like '69 unexpected encounters.' Every track is like opening another door to find something weird and wonderful. It's musical chaos theory, and I'm here for it. A true delight. Spins: 1 Playlist Additions - All My Little Words - I Don't Want to Get Over You - Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits - The Book of Love - The One You Really Love
listened to all 69 songs and this is simply put: a perfect album. no notes
I love a good concept album. This was just way too long to keep my attention. This album should have been presented to us on three consecutive days because most of us have lives to live. Some of the songs were really good and I liked the different genres. Maybe, I will listen to this again when I can find three hours to spare.
i really liked it, spoke to me in a personal level.
feels a little on the nose to say that this record contains multitudes. Maybe if it was ONLY a double album. There’s stuff for everything: Brian Wilson croons, renaissance lute ballads, classic Merritt dirges and even choir chestnuts like The Book of Love. But most important for me, there’s a supercut of hazy power-pop bangers that faithfully soundtracked my most melodramatic times. That cut alone would make a full LP. For my own tastes, most other Fields albums contain 1/3 things that I want to hear forever, but a third of 69 is 23. So goddamn.
When The Magnetic Fields set out to make an album of 69 love songs, I'm sure they didn't think "but what if our album is someday included on a website that generates an album every day for people to listen to." It was at least partly a response to Charles Ives' 114 songs. Yes you could probably make an incredible album of just the best songs on here, but I think if it hadn't been 69 songs some of the really enjoyable weird stuff wouldn't have been written. I love this album. I love how strange it is. I love how varied it is. I love how broad their definition of "love song" becomes. Many of these songs regularly appear on my playlists. I'd never sat down to listen to the full album before, but I'm glad I did. There were some songs on here that I hadn't heard but really loved. Not every song on here is one I would choose to play on its own, but a lot of them are. I like the ambition of the project and despite its long run time, I do think I'll listen to it again. Fav song: Reno Dakota, Absolutely Cuckoo and Papa Was a Rodeo are some of my favourites. From the songs I didn't know already, No One Will Ever Love You and World Love are some new favourites. Least fav: Experimental Music Love
Obviously it's a long album and it suffers from the nature of this reviewing process- they probably weren't ever expecting people to try to listen to it in a day. Although everyone complaining should be glad he didn't make it 100 love songs like originally planned. Honestly the further into the album I got the more I appreciated the scale of it. It's not just an album its a project on love songs, an exploration across genres, emotions and types and stages of relationships. There are some truly gorgeous songs and lyrics and while they aren't all perfect I never got bored or annoyed, I was always excited to see what they'd done next and I'm really glad this project made me listen to it all. Favourite song: All My Little Words (also absolutely love The Book of Love and Absolutely Cuckoo) My favourite new song: Meaningless (or It's A Crime, or I'm Sorry I Love You) Least: Love Is Like Jazz
Deserves to be on the list just for its sheer audacity. But it’s also wonderful. It’s an album of love songs, yes, but specifically about all type and shapes and parts of love. The wonderful highs and the desperate scary parts. Love is both the greatest and scariest thing in the world on this album. It takes all forms. There are desperate pleas, happy long marriages, pining, horrible bouts of unhinged depression, horniness, queer romance. It also bounds between genres and styles, playful flippancy and dead serious dirges. It’s a wonderful experience listening to the whole thing and identifying parts you relate to, past hurts, current elations. Fuck.
I would like to state from the outset that I simply haven’t had enough to time to truly appreciate this album, but that I am looking forward to coming back again and again. 69 Love Songs really made me reconsider my definition of “love songs” because to me, this was like 56 (rough estimation) break-up songs, which are obviously full of love and yearning, but exist in a separate category for me. It was also oodles of fun and full of whimsy, which we need more of, and I’m also glad to have listened to this album in a stable emotional state because I just /know/ some of these lyrics would have destroyed a different version of myself. I love how they experimented with genre and tone throughout the record. There was no sameness that has plagued some of the other long albums we’ve had and really felt like they were trying to challenge themselves with creating love songs across the musical spectrum. Faves in no particular order (or, the order in which they appear on the album): - A Chicken… - Reno Dakota 🌟 - Luckiest Guy… 🌟 (also takes my fave lyric for “I’m the luckiest guy on the Lower East Side, ‘cause I’ve got wheels and you want to go for a ride”) - I think I need a new heart - (Crazy for you)… - Promises of Eternity - Papa was a rodeo - Queen of Savages - I love you I can’t… - The Night you can’t… - For we are the kings… This is a narrow 4.5 rounded up and I’m looking forward to this album becoming a mainstay
If it’s good enough for Olivia Rodrigo, it’s good enough for me! Have actually been listening to her recent cover of The Book of Love quite a bit lately, which felt like great preparation for this, although can one ever be fully prepared for a 69-song long album? I think Flynn’s prediction for my rating will be a 2, if only because I’ve previously complained about albums on here being so long, but I loved this. Conceptually so cool, so much variety and I never knew what to expect. There were moments where I was like “oh I’m listening to sufjan stevens” and other songs that reminded me a lot of They Might Be Giants. It was a journey and probably my favourite brand new album to discover from the whole project so far. Went back and listened to some of my faves again already today and look forward to delving into some more I think (although very hard to say) my faves were Crazy For You (But Not That Crazy), Washington DC, Mo One Will Ever Love You, Bitter Tears, Reno Dakota. But will require some more relistening to fully recall each of them
This is one of the greatest artistic pieces of work of all time. Authenticity is an interesting concept in music. I want it to be real and come from a genuine place. A good love song feels much better when it feels like someone actually feels that way (which is why Amy Winehouse is so good). Any yet, Stephen Merritt defies all odds by deciding to write 69 love songs just because he can. They might not be about anyone or a specific relationship but feel like they are. Musically they jump from genre to genre and never stay long enough for the 3+ hours to feel like a slog. The best quality of this album is its lyrics though. Sometimes Merritt is profoundly personal and heartwrenching (Grand Canyon comes to mind) and sometimes he’s quirky and hilarious (“he’s making me blue, Pantone 292” is the line that sticks in my head the most for this). This is a masterpiece and I’m glad to listen to it every time I do. (PS I think Arkady will give it a 2 (due to length), Emily a 4 (she loves lyrics), Brook a 3 (she’ll forget about it when she released her review in a month) and Gemma a 5)
Released on September 14, 1999, *69 Love Songs* is a three-hour conceptual marathon divided across three discs (23 songs each). What began as a "publicity stunt" to escape the limitations of a five-song EP evolved into one of indie rock's most celebrated achievements. The album catapulted The Magnetic Fields from college radio cult favorites to critical darlings, earning a 10/10 from *Spin* and placing second in the *Village Voice*'s prestigious Pazz & Jop critics poll . --- ## Lyrics: The Architecture of Affection Stephin Merritt's lyrics operate on multiple sophisticated levels simultaneously. The album's central conceit, as Merritt himself stated, is that "it's not remotely an album about love. It's an album about love songs, which are very far away from anything to do with love" . This meta-textual awareness permeates every track. **Literary Craftsmanship**: Merritt's wordplay is consistently dazzling. In "I Don't Want to Get Over You," he rhymes: *"Or I could make a career of being blue / I could dress in black and read Camus / Smoke clove cigarettes and drink vermouth / Like I was seventeen, that would be a scream"* . The humor is self-deprecating yet precise, mocking the performative aspects of heartbreak while genuinely feeling it. **Subversive Analogies**: "A Pretty Girl Is Like" exemplifies Merritt's strategy of destabilizing cliché through extreme metaphor. He compares the titular figure to a minstrel show, a violent crime, and a melody before landing on the deflationary conclusion: "A pretty girl is like… a pretty girl" . This technique—building elaborate conceits only to collapse them—exposes the artificiality of love song conventions while paradoxically reaffirming their necessity. **Queer Sensibility**: The album's queer perspective was "under-remarked upon at the time" but is fundamental to its DNA. Merritt's detachment from heteronormative love song traditions allows for a campy yet sincere approach that treats love as performance, artifice, and genuine emotion simultaneously. Songs like "Papa Was a Rodeo"—with its chorus *"Papa was a rodeo, Mama was a rock'n'roll band"*—queer the American roots mythology while delivering genuine emotional wallop. --- ## Music: Genre as Collage **Stylistic Range**: The album is a deliberate museum of pop history, touching chamber folk, fuzzy indie rock, synth-pop, country, punk, and experimental music. As one critic noted, "Merritt excels at what you might call 'high-concept Erasure songs'—sprightly, fizzy synthpop with elaborate lyrical conceits" . Tracks like "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long" feature "perky synthesizer basslines" , while "I Don't Believe in the Sun" showcases Merritt's "forlorn dolor of his baritone" . **Structural Economy**: Most songs clock in under two minutes—"the time it takes to smoke a cigarette" . This brevity serves the conceptual framework: these are love songs *about* love songs, fragments that acknowledge their own fragmentary nature. When songs do stretch longer (like "Papa Was a Rodeo"), the extended duration feels earned. **Vocal Variety**: Merritt shares lead vocals with four other singers (Shirley Simms, Dudley Klute, Claudia Gonson, and LD Beghtol), creating a theatrical revue atmosphere. Simms' "bright indie voice expressed a crisp sadness where Merritt's is sodden" , providing essential textural contrast across the marathon runtime. --- ## Production: Intentional Lo-Fi Aesthetic **The "Chintzy" Sound**: The production deliberately embraces cheap keyboards, drum machines, and sparse arrangements. As Merritt's live band demonstrated in 2025, "the keyboards and drums sounded chintzy in 1999 too. That was the point" . This isn't lo-fi out of necessity but as aesthetic choice—artificiality matching the album's thematic concerns. **Instrumental Palette**: The dominant textures include "ostinatos and arpeggios, chords broken into their constituent parts, like lonely people, repeating incessantly like love" . Sam Davol's cello provides melodic bass lines, while Chris Ewen handles synth programming and electronic textures. The electric guitars are "echoey, doomy, urban, in the style of the Jesus and Mary Chain" , referencing Phil Spector's girl group productions through a post-punk lens. **Minimalist Maximalism**: Despite the three-hour length, the production remains deliberately restrained. There's no studio bloat—each song is a discrete unit, economically arranged to serve its specific genre exercise. --- ## Themes: Love as Linguistic Construct **The Semiotics of Romance**: "The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure" explicitly names the album's theoretical concerns. Merritt murders the father of structuralism in the name of Motown songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland, suggesting that we know nothing about love itself, only about how love has been constructed through songs . **Love's Inadequacy**: The album catalogues love's failures: "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off" (being unlovable), "I Think I Need a New Heart" (emotional malfunction), "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!" (domestic murder). Even "The Book of Love"—the album's most sincere moment—admits the form is "long and boring" and "full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes / And things we're all too young to know" . **Urban and Animal Metaphors**: Merritt organizes his chaos through recurring motifs. "Everything is either a city or an animal," he quipped in 2025 . From "Reno Dakota" to "Come Back from San Francisco" to "Washington D.C.," geography becomes emotional shorthand. Animals appear as symbols of ungovernable desire ("Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long") or romantic fatalism. --- ## Influence and Legacy **Immediate Impact**: The album transformed The Magnetic Fields from indie cult act to recognized masters. It spawned a *33 1/3* book by collaborator LD Beghtol, fan sites, and countless critical reassessments . Subsequent albums (*i*, *Distortion*, *Realism*, *Love at the Bottom of the Sea*) all charted on the Billboard 200 . **Cultural Permeation**: "The Book of Love" has become a modern standard, covered by Peter Gabriel (for the film *Shall We Dance?*), performed at weddings and funerals, and even sung by "seven-year-old girls on Danish talent contests" . What began as ironic commentary has become sincere ritual—a perfect demonstration of the album's thesis about the transformation of artifice into authentic feeling. **Artistic Descendants**: The album's influence extends to any indie artist treating genre as malleable material—Sufjan Stevens' state projects, The Decemberists' literary conceits, and countless "playlist generation" artists who view albums as curated collections rather than unified statements. --- ## Pros and Cons ### **Pros** | Strength | Evidence | |----------|----------| | **Unprecedented Scope** | Successfully executes 69 distinct songs without collapsing under its own weight; "the perfect indie rock masterwork, undercutting its claim on the monumental by embracing the fragmentary" | | **Consistent Quality** | Even "throwaway" tracks like "Punk Love" and "Experimental Love" serve the conceptual framework; "Are there duds on *69 Love Songs*? Probably, but I wouldn't want to lose them" | | **Literary Depth** | Lyrics reward close reading with layers of irony, sincerity, and intertextual reference | | **Emotional Range** | Moves seamlessly from genuine heartbreak ("I Don't Want to Get Over You") to absurdist humor ("Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long") to existential dread ("Papa Was a Rodeo") | | **Cultural Resonance** | Has aged into "an inexhaustible compendium of comforts for those who've loved, lost and lamented" | | **Democratic Accessibility** | Short songs and varied styles prevent monotony; "tailor-made for the attention span of millennials" | ### **Cons** | Weakness | Evidence | |----------|----------| | **Exhausting Length** | "After 'The Book of Love' (track 16), the songs seem to get more and more inconsistent... sides 2 & 3 don't have the same immediacy" ; "the songs just blend together, making it background music" | | **Fragmented Flow** | Abrupt transitions between styles and singers can disrupt emotional investment; tracks like "How F\*\*\*\*g Romantic" and "Punk Love" "disrupt the flow of the album" | | **Uneven Distribution** | Merritt sings 45 of 69 songs; some listeners may prefer the variety provided by other vocalists | | **Deliberate Artifice** | The meta-conceptual framework may alienate listeners seeking unmediated emotional expression; "you can never be sure with him" regarding sincerity | | **Acquired Taste** | Merritt's "drolly melodramatic" delivery and "Camel baritone" require adjustment | | **Filler Necessity** | Some tracks exist primarily to serve the numerical concept (69 songs) rather than as standalone compositions | --- ## Conclusion *69 Love Songs* remains one of the most audacious achievements in indie rock history—a three-hour meditation on love's representation that manages to be simultaneously cynical and sincere, fragmented and cohesive, artificial and deeply moving. Its greatest strength is its embrace of inconsistency: by refusing to synthesize its competing styles and emotional registers into a unified statement, it mirrors love's own chaotic, contradictory nature. The album's central insight—that we can only know love through the songs we've inherited about it—has only grown more poignant in the streaming era, where "filler" tracks (once criticized) now provide essential shape to albums . Twenty-five years later, *69 Love Songs* stands not just as a collection of excellent songs, but as a profound investigation into how we sing about the unsingable.
acredite se quiser, mas eu fiz uma roadtrip de 3h com esse tocando do inicio ao fim!!! foi uma experiencia incrivel eu tava estranhando um pouco a sonoridade do magnetic fields mas depois gostei d+ fora as 3h de album, eu gosto demais do conceito que foi proposto nesse tá é o único mto longo que vai ganhar 5 estrelas por aqui
O SEGUNDO MAIS LONGO DA LISTA, graças a deus é uma PEDRADA puta merda!!!!!! queria mto saber dirigir pra pegar estrada e botar esse torando. parece um bom album pruma roadtrip maluca de 3h. bom, separei em 3 dias, 1 horinha pra cada dia. e funcionou demais. não enjoei, na vdd até fiquei querendo ouvir mais. indie pop de ALTÍSSIMA qualidade, bão pra carai. não curto mto as musicas mto eletronicas, mas são longe de serem ruins!! apesar de longo, acho que vale a pena ser escutado. é um marco pro indie rock e eh bem bacana ver o tema amor sendo explorado de 69 maneiras diferentes. bão demais!!!!!!!!
For those of you questioning the time commitment for this album, just put it on, it'll have you hooked. So many styles, tones and approaches to the topic of love. Essential in its breadth, scope, grandeur and sheer likeability.
This album is in my humble opinion in its own league. Aprox. 3 hours of entertainment. I could go on and on trying to describe its vast span of genres and qualities but listening for yourself is worth so much more.
This is virtuosic. So extensive yet so slight, so insincere/cynical yet for real and begotten from hearts that feel, 69 Love Songs is unlike anything before or since. I mean, Stephin Merritt is sorta an American Morrissey, but not all literary depressives are made the same, and The Magnetic Fields frontman has his own reasons for being an unbelieving and ornery curmudgeon. +, it isn't like there's no joy here - there's plenty and it's infectious. It's no easy task to pick out a favorite line, but here's one: 'We don't have to be stars exploding in the night, or electric eels under the covers / We don't have to be anything quite so unreal, let's just be lovers.' And if you think it's simply too long, you could just listen to one disc at a time. It really isn't that hard.
obsessed with the concept. but i'm gonna listen in three sections by disc, cause i don't really want to listen to 3hrs nonstop. i don't believe in the sun--"astronomy must be revised" iconic reno dakota--"pantone 292" (it's blue) these are all incredible. i am taking notes for future use. the cactus where your heart should be--is that a harpsichord? i think i need a new heart the book of love--oh my goodness this is so sweet i love it finished disc 1. notes: incredible. silly at times, serious at times, lovely throughout. incredible lyrics all around. instrumentation solidly complements the lyrical mood. overall impeccable. however, i am not taking individual listening notes on all 69 tracks. discs 2 & 3--presumably about 46 tracks--are for afternoon listening. phase ii starting off a little more experimental here. love is like jazz especially. when my boy walks down the street--YES YES YES this album feels like the quintessentially '90s counterpart to that quintessentially '90s angst in linkin park, et al. "oh i could write a song about the way you say goodnight" is the funniest lyric i shatter--i don't love it, but it is impressive deep robot voice vocals going on ok two discs in, and i'd put this in the mid 4 range. probably rounded to 5/5 because it has brought me much joy, but i'm not sure i'd call it a perfect 5/5. phase iii was even a bit more out there than phase ii, i think it's intentional. sadly xylophone track did not have a xylophone???? zebra was weird and funny. i stand by my assessment that it's a solid 4.5/5 rounded up.
Wow. Incredible. Really nice album (or whatever you would call this at 69 short songs long). Also, 69 is a choice
5 / 5 for the quality and diversity of the tracks. -1 for being nearly three hours long. +1 for _absolutely_ committing to the bit. Literally something for everyone on here.
Here’s the thing about The Magnetic Fields: I love them, but they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. Sometimes the production of their songs is strange, some of their songs are actively bad, but all in all, I love their strange sound and I love Stephin Merritt’s dark sense of humor and one-of-a-kind perspective. 69 Love Songs is certainly what they are most well known for, an album that is really about love songs, rather than about love. Many of the songs on it are amazing. A few suck. I kind of think that’s part of the charm. Favorite tracks: “All My Little Words,” “I Don’t Want To Get Over You,” “The Book of Love,” “No One Will Ever Love You”
weird and beautiful and heartbreaking and rough around the edges and never, ever boring. even when that rough-sounding vocoder moment on i shatter hits. there’s an earnestness beyond the gimmick and i really connect with it. one of the first conversations i had with my now-boyfriend involved disclosing our respective top 5 songs from 69 love songs. big shoutout to all of the lovers out there.
Honestly, if you can make a three hour album with 69 songs and I don’t actually feel the urge to turn it off once, that’s a 5/5 in my book
I'll gladly be another outlier. 69 is a beautiful record that, to jump off of what another user pointed out, has a great blend of melancholy and joy that hits all the usual quirkiness of this project. It's also surprisingly varied and more organic than I was expecting. And yes, it's long, but you can easily listen in chunks.
Wedding first and last dance songs, an album I’ve loved for years, and an excellent live show = easy 5!
I know this is going to be a 4 or 5, the issue is I don’t get to disc 3 often enough to remember it with the perfect recall I have of discs 1 and 2. Disc 1: perfect, no skips, wouldn’t change a thing Disc 2: slightly more inconsistent but still contains some of my favs (I shatter, papa was a rodeo, you’re my only home, asleep and dreaming, epitaph for my heart), if this were a standalone disc I’d probably still give it a soft 5 Disc 3 would probably be a 3/4 borderline. I like underwear, acoustic guitar, ferdinand, gin, and zebra (“Zelda looks lonely” kills me every time), but I don’t think the rest are memorable. Still, even a 5 + 5 + 3 is a 4.33 average and I’m comfortable rounding up for how strong the first two discs are. The math doesn’t have to be perfect.
Det her albumet, altså. Æ tror æ har visst om det omtrent siden det kom ut, og omtrent siden da bestemte æ mæ for at æ ikke skulle kjøpe det sjøl, men vente til noen ga det til mæ, som en romantisk ouverture. Ikke at æ egentlig hadde forhold nok til The Magnetic Fields til at æ følte et veldig behov for å høre på det, da hadde æ nok vært mer sjølhjulpen, men det føltes som en romantisk idé. Det gikk jo med den som det går med mange andre romantiske ideer, og nu vet æ ikke katti æ sist har tenkt på det her albumet, men æ sukka litt da det dukka opp. Det va noen låter der æ kjenne igjen etter å ha hørt i tilfeldige sammenhenger før, det va ganske mange låter der æ likte, og det va en del låter som forsvant inn i det relativt store havet som e 69 sanger. Og en liten del av mæ tenke fortsatt på muligheten til å få det her albumet i gave, sannsynligvis handla på Platebaren Feedback, pent pakka inn og overlevert med håp og lengsel. Det hadde vært nokka.
Move outta the way Taylor Swift! I’ve never heard of an album that consists entirely of love songs let alone 69 of them. With the idea generated in a gay piano bar and showcased at a drag show. I imagine Stephin is probably a pretty entertaining person if he essentially runs with an idea to troll love stories in the most loving way. I Love it! Super fun idea and well executed! I listened to at least 69 percent of theses songs.
I don’t like Brit pop or dudes singing about their troubled love lives in British accents. I also think it’s hard to sustain quality through a double album, much less a triple album! This album broke me — in a good way. It’s an amazing, and sustained execution of a worthwhile vision. Truly an accomplishment! These love songs are fantastic: — creative, musical, varied, and not trite. Unlike most Brit pop**, there is humor! About 3 parts humor, 2 parts cynicism, 2 parts poignant observations about love, life, and relationships in general. It’s an excellent blend. The musicianship is on point and no song sounds like another — there are at least 5 dozen different sounds across the these three albums. And, the male vocalist sings in a baritone and is not a loser, so even though his delivery is often similar to Morrissey, he is not annoying or windgey. The female singer is excellent and provides a refreshing counterpoint, not found in the nihilistic realms of so much Brit pop. And, these songs are short — bite size nuggets of quality — they don’t overstay their welcome. There was an editor in the room. But, it’s 3 albums. Long for any single listen. What to do? The quality is consistent and I want to hear the whole thing again, maybe an album at a time this time. I’d also happily play it on random or repeat. It meets my criteria for a 5, and that’s what I’ll give it! 5. **I am told this is not Brit pop, but Chamber Pop or Baroque pop — close relatives. The singer/creator is not British, but American.
If They Might Be Giants and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds had a love child and that child made an album it’d be this album. I hadn’t heard of the Magnetic Fields before, but this is fun and brooding and weird in just the best way.
This is a collection of one line drawings. There are plenty of great melodies, even if they aren’t fully worked out. There are plenty of great lines, even if they are mostly insincere. They overcome a somewhat limited sonic palette with multiple voices, musical styles, and sexual orientations. You’re bound to have some clunkers and numbers that feel like cleaning up after a brainstorming session with this quantity. That makes me want more editing but 35 Love Songs doesn’t hit the same. I’m going to round up for ambition.
There’s understandably some filler on this album but the highs are very high. I love the catchy pop, the creativity and breadth, the ironic humour, and the sheer audacity.
Absolutely overstuffed and absolutely perfect. It’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in a major key, it’s The Smiths if Morrissey didn’t hate himself.
Not every song is amazing, but taken as a whole it is a work of breathtaking genius, combining wit and heartache
Rakastan tätä bändiä ja tätä albumia. Ihana yllätys, että tuli täällä vastaan! Monet näistä biiseistä on jo pitkään kuulunu mun vakikuunteluun <3 <3
This is an incredible endeavour. And he almost pulls it off! There is a good range of music here and mostly enjoyable. Full marks for ambition.
Im as surprised as anyone. But the wit, the easy listenability and the sheer size of it surprised me. The jazz song that clearly hates jazz made me laugh out loud
An album that has been on rotation for me for many years. There are no albums on this list that have SO MANY notable songs, but then there are also few where the album is 69 songs so I need to bear this in mind. All that said, yes there are a lot of songs that are not notable, but they are still good. So really this album is filled with a lot of good songs and a lot of REALLY good songs. I was considering downvoting it for the length of the album but that would not be acknowledging how really good a lot of the songs are. I do find it funny when I look at the reviews, one of my favourite songs on this album, Yeah Oh Yeah, someone said was the worst! it was always 5 Stars
I had put this one off for a while. Not because I didn't have the patience or a lack of interest, but more the idea of listening to the same artist for nearly 3 hours. For me, this is not an album that I can sit down and fully integrate with, however as something playing in the background, its a decent time. The aforementioned 69 love songs are exactly that, there's no need to break down the content thankfully. The main standout is Merritt's voice, I don't think I've heard a register as low as his, but it somehow works, its unbelievable. It's also good that other vocalists take the lead throughout so Merritt's bass tones don't outlive their welcome. I can't see myself coming back to this often cause of the length but certainly great songs, a unique delivery and yeah give it a try.
Proust in musical form: a fey man on the Lower East Side sits in a gay bar and (mis)remembers every love song he's ever heard. In the process he manages to (mis)remember some of the best songs Jackson Browne, Cole Porter, Jonathan Richman, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Bernard Sumner, etc. never actually wrote. A miracle.
A classic. And I'm stoked that the Magnetic Fields made this list. I don't think any of these are really among my favorite songs of his/theirs, but the album as a whole is a great listen. Best tracks: "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits," "A Pretty Girl Is Like," "Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old," "Underwear," "Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin," "Blue You," "The Night You Can't Forget" (for a purely comedic example), and "Zebra" (ditto).
One of my favorite albums of all time. Obviously there’s a lot to take in here and repeat listens reveal more and more each time. I’ve known about 69 Love Songs for years and there are still songs that jump out and become new obsessions that I never gave much thought to previously (Grand Canyon was that song on this listen). When I first listened to this album, I didn’t actually sit down and listen to all 3 hours. I found a used cd of only the first part. Months later I found a copy of the second part, and then even later I finally found the third one. I’m glad I discovered 69 Love Songs this way. It allowed me to spend more time with each part and not get overwhelmed by its size. As expansive as it is, the true beauty of this album is all the small details that make up each song. Certain tonal changes inflections, the rough and raw production, how specific the lyrics are. Each song feels like it’s telling a small part of larger story that exists somewhere out in the world. I also feel like 69 Love Songs doesn’t get the recognition it deserves for being such an openly queer album. Every song was written by a gay man. They’re sung by both men and women with all combinations of pronouns. It’s accepting of all sexualities. Some songs are clearly straight, some gay, some bi, and some left unclear. But they’re all treated as equally valid ways to love
Some of the most beautiful songs ever written, from the danceable to the devastating. Some of the most clever and touching lyrics. Really just one of the best albums, period. Some of these songs are just transcendental, and some are just really dumb. But so is love. Stephen Merritt claims that this album isn't about love, that it's about love songs. And a lot of these songs do feel like they're mimicking love song tropes or even specific love songs. But you can't pretend to write about love songs and not know anything about love, and that leaks out in all the gorgeously relatable moments on this album. I would never claim it's too long, though it does drag in places. But even then that's crucial to the concept here - there need to be lows so you can recognize the highs. And you need 68 other love songs to help you realize that the 69th is the one that was meant for you.
Fuck you whoever put a 3 hour album on here. With that said, I really enjoyed this album. It’s quirky and fun and the lyrics are sometimes silly and sometimes poetic and I think was a perfect album for this list.
Profound, silly, folky, squelchy, fun, dark, and a very funny number. In all seriousness, this was magical, and felt like a near-3 hour collage of songwriting. 5 stars for the effort put in, and for changing something about how I look at music. :)
I lost count. Can somebody tell me how many love songs are on this album? It better be a funny number.
There are times, many times, when an artist has an idea for a concept before writing any of the music, and most of those times, the results are disasterous. This, however, is not one of those times. Despite the silly yet ambitious idea, Stephin Merrit and co. are able to come up with consistently fun, clever, and creative songs to fill the entire 69 slots. Of course, this results in a very lengthy listen, but I feel this is meant to work as an encyclopedia of Indie Pop. Also not every one of the 69 tracks is a 'song'. Between all the Twee Pop, Synthpop, and Folk Pop numbers there is stuff like the cheerleader chant of "Washington D.C.", the discordant Jazz of "Love Is Like Jazz", and whatever "Experimental Music Love" is supposed to be. Starting on this album, The Magnetic Field began specializing in out there meta concepts like this, including and album which every song titled starts with 'i', or another in which Merrit wrote a song representing every years of his life (50 at the time). Great album you can return to time and time again and always find new favorites. Key tracks: I Don't Believe in the Sun All My Little Words A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off I Don't Want to Get Over You The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side I Think I Need a New Heart The Book of Love The One You Really Love Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old Grand Canyon You're My Only Home Papa Was a Rodeo Underwear It's a Crime Busby Berkeley Dreams The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure The Night You Can't Remember
I like how much this album is making me think about music as art. I keep ebbing and flowing between the two. At first it was music, then it started to feel long so it felt more like an art statement, then it started to feel like a radio station (music), etc. Obviously all music is art but this album just makes me think about both of those words. Sure it’s long, but guess what, I just hit play again after it was over! I wish every musician did this exercise! Grew on me big time.
This album suffers when listening to it on streaming. When it came out, it was a 3-disc set, and although it was certainly unwieldy, the physical discs actually helped make the listening experience easier as you treated it almost like three different albums. Rather than always starting on track one, you might just grab disc three and pop it into your car CD player. So you were much more likely to hear the entire thing, as opposed to now where you'd have to either listen to all of it in order or try to scroll down a bit and do some math or research to know where disc three starts. As for the music, it really hits a sweet spot for me. It's fun and jaunty, and they take themselves just seriously enough to make the proceedings worthwhile without veering into preciousness or pretentiousness. It features the clever wordplay and instantly catchy tunes of the Tinpan Alley writers while still retaining an indie music ethos. Some of these songs feel like they've always existed. And I love its breadth. There's Broadway and country and Americana and Old-Timey as well as alternative. At the same time, it is a bit insular. (I think that's the word I'm looking for.) It's very white and very New-Yorker-Sunday-brunch, and I can see how that, combined with the less-than-great singing can turn people off. (Not to mention that it's three hours long!) But overall, I find this charming and inviting and celebratory, not to mention funny and touching. I like how Stephen Merritt doesn't sing every song as that would be tiresome. Yes, there are plenty of clunkers on here, but if you wait a few minutes another classic will come along and you'll be swept away all over again. I'm between a 4 and a 5 here, but I'll round up just cause.
Too many songs! But I like most of them. Lotsa variety!
My favorite album
I love this band and this album is the pinnacle of their work! Loved it!
Considered like a regular album, this is obnoxiously long and without enough standout songs to justify the runtime. But taken together, it's an amazing piece of art. Despite having the single theme of "love songs", there's tons of variety across the track list with folk, country, rock, pop, electronic, synth pop and even what sounds like a Gaelic dance. The breadth of different ideas explored by each song is also really impressive, and I appreciate the bits of humour thrown in. One of the most interesting and enjoyable albums I've come across so far. It took multiple sittings to get through but I'm glad I did! My favourites were: A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off, Yeah! Oh Yeah!, I Don't Wanna Get Over You, and Papa Was A Rodeo.
The only triple album I would ever willingly subject myself to in its entirety, and have done so on multiple occasions. A beautiful collection of lovely, funny, playful songs, none of which overstay their welcome.
Excessive and magnificent. I’m about 26 years late to the party, but this was my first time listening to this album start to finish (other than the occasional song here and there). Is every song a winner? No. Is the bit that good? Yes. Although more synths than I was expecting.
Crazy how good this is, but not that crazy. Obviously some of the songs are better than others, but what I really enjoy is after not listening for a while, the standouts change. Just insanely good.
This is one of those albums that I can never tire of no matter the length. Stephin Merritt is one of my all time favorite songwriters, and this album is him and the other band members at their finest. I’ve seen them live in a small, intimate venue, and it was genuinely one of the best live music experiences I’ve ever had.
This album gets a lot of buzz on the subreddit, so I was pretty stoked to finally get it today, and was prepared to strap in for the long ride. I was pleased to find it lives up to the hype! The songwriting is so incredibly creative, and it never seems to drag on because there's so much variety in sound and style. You never know what you're getting next, and there wasn't a single song that felt like a disappointment. It just all works so well together. Such a fun journey! I feel like I need to pick a favorite of the 69, and I'm going with Long-Forgotten Fairytale, but the whole thing was truly a delight. Definitely falls into masterpiece status in my book!
I can give a lot of praise to this album for having 69 totally unique songs even if some are clearly better than others, I still am in awe at the sheer ambition here plus I’m a huge fan of Stephin Merritt and The Gothic Archies (I looooove Daniel Handler / Lemony Snicket / Series of Unfortunate Events) so this was an easy 10/10 for me
Fucking 10/10 for the title, concept and execution alone. Stephin Merritt is an absolute madman, and it's a brilliant choice to share the vocal spotlights. It makes the three hours fly by, especially when there is also so much variety in instrumentation and structure throughout. It's a perfect blend of sincerity and silliness. Highlights: 'I Don't Believe in the Sun', 'A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off', 'Come Back from San Francisco', 'The Book of Love', 'A Pretty Girl Is Like...', 'Love Is Like Jazz', 'No One Will Ever Love You', 'The Night You Can't Remember', and my all time favourite love song: 'Papa Was a Rodeo'.
This came out when I was 17. An annoying indie boy was gushing about it and played me 30 seconds of a track. I was a metal fan, and didn't really get it. And now I'm really annoyed at myself. Because this is incredible. It's a 3cd album that doesn't feel bloated. Every song is in a different style with different instrumentation and 3? Different singers? and yet there's a clear running thread of humour, beautiful imagery, well used conceits. Some songs are bare bones sketches, none are long enough to outstay their welcome. If I'd truly listened to this at the time I think it would have taken my life in a different direction. It's not perfect, but out of 69 songs at least 60 are really good, and at least 10 are utterly brilliant. Savour this.
I like the first song so I’m intrigued, but this feels like a big commitment today. 😂🤣 2nd song is great too. If they can keep this up the whole time this will be great, but that will be a feat. Only on the third song and this is really great. I think it’s the instrumentation selections on these songs that are making this so much fun. Each song is unique. There is so much variety here and yet it’s held together like a good mix tape. I’m glad I didn’t skip this one. Halfway through the second collection of 23. “Long forgotten Fairy Tale” is brilliant. This record is amazing. This arrangement on “the way you say goodnight” is just fantastic! Last song on the second collection “I shatter” is like a twisted Leonard Cohen and I love it. I truly can’t get over what a great collection of songs this is. When I saw 69 love songs and then realized it was really 69 songs, I was going skip this one. I’m almost to the end now and cannot believe how many great songs are on this one collection. This album should be the focus of songwriting curriculum in music schools and classes. This album is brilliant.
Big impact on girls who used Photo Booth on their parent’s MacBook to recorded ukulele covers in 2009/2010. (I am one of those girls.) Look– it’s long. It’s exactly what it says it is: 69 love songs, 172 minutes of ‘90s twee indie pop for first-wave Williamsburg hipsters. If your critique is that it’s long, that’s dumb. Meet the record on its own terms. If your critique is that you hate hipster music, then that’s a bit more valid, especially because, yeah, then those 172 minutes will make this a difficult listen. But I think both those critiques aren’t actively listening to this album. To me, 69 Love Songs is an achievement in composition. It is a living testament to how good songwriting shines through no matter what you’re playing the song on, how good the production is, or even if you have your typical instruments on hand. Most of this album is played on what I would lovingly call ✨garage instruments✨ (literally bullshit you find lying around in the garage where you practice): Casio keyboards, drum machines for children, accordions, out of tune guitars, kazoos, ukuleles, an old piano covered with dust, etc. On paper, it should all sound like trash, but Merritt is such a master of the art of songwriting that every single one of these songs feels timeless. If you played these on better instrumentation, surely they’d be hits; that’s evident by the various cover versions of multiple songs here. But the scrappy low fidelity is part of the charm, just like the dopey concept itself to write the funny number of serious romance songs. And despite the low fidelity, so much of this album still sounds incredible, because the songs themselves just cut through to your soul. Now, while Merritt is a master of songwriting, I won’t try and claim that every song on here is a hit. When you write 69 songs in one period, statistically, some will be weaker than others, and even if they all are great, some listeners will always have complaints about a handful. That’s one problem for me, as it should be for anyone who gives this record an honest listen (I personally hate “Fido, Your Lease Is Too Long,” which might be a hot take). But 69 Love Songs also has its fair share of ~experimental cuts~ that definitely were only included in order to reach the funny number: “Experimental Love Music,” “Love Is Like Jazz,” “Xylophone Track,” etc. It’s also par for the course of any ’90’s indie album, when pseudo-intellectual experiments were in vogue regardless if it served the song. Still, sometimes the experiments hit, whether it’s the weird outdated keyboard tones on a cut that feel annoying at first but eventually turn into a hook, or songs like “World Love” and “Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget” that sell you on the conceit itself. And honestly, even taking this into account, the hit-to-dud ratio is still VERY high. I think that’s also because while Merritt is the main songwriter, a) the vocalist changes frequently enough to keep you engaged, and b) the style, while always ✨hipster✨ in every way, does change sonically from track to track. The benefit of 69 songs is that there’s inherent variety, and that’s very much to this record’s benefit. I also think that most sane people know to digest this record disc by disc, and not blaze through it in a single sitting, at least not the first time. While I think each disc has generalized themes (Disc 1= Mainstream Indie Pop, Disc 2= Experimental Indie Rock, Disc 3= Musical Theatre Indie Pop), they all contain some element of each other, so it’s still connected, but giving yourself air between discs helps it all breathe a bit more. I think a part of me would try to argue that if you ONLY had Disc 1, you’d have an undebatable masterpiece, but I think each disc is a 5-star record in and of itself, or at least an 8.5/10. Every disc has some of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard in my life, followed by some dumb hipster piss take. Your mileage on the latter depends on your Millennial-ness, but the former is universal, and still makes up the majority of this album, and both make for a really great listen to my ears front-to-back.
Goddamn. I listened to this one from 5am-8am in my way to work, what a behemoth. I thought I listened to much of this before but soon realized I've mostly listened to songs off of disc 1. It is absolutely masterful that they conceived of this many distinct songs with the same theme. At no point does it feel like there is repetition, and the tracklist is constantly engaging. Outstanding piece of musical history, though I think I'll only listen to it all the way through this one time. 5/5
Any album that's gonna take up 3 hours of my time better be a damn good one... ...ok, fair enough! Pretty much every song contained something that made me smile, either lyrically or musically - and often both. The fact I'm even considering listening to the whole thing again speaks volumes. A triumph of ambition, wit and throwaway pop songwriting. SURPRISE FIVE STARS.
a BEAST of an album. I haven't listened to it straight through it's so massive. So many great songs. Really all over the place sylistically/creatively.
Any album that goes from one of the most beautiful love songs ever written straight into a song about a dog is a 5 in my book. A truly unbelievable feat of ambition. A deserving classic.
I really dont even know where to begin. Grand pianos smash together when my boy walks down the street! Busby Berkeley dreams? Book of love? So many masterpiece songs, an album full of 1 hit wonders. Maybe the most impactful albums of my life. 10/5
This was my first time ever listening to it straight through in its entirety. What a great album. It shockingly lives up to its bold premise. There's so much variety here too that it never feels stale.
This is truly incredible. Each song is a little gem. Merritt examines every aspect of love and then he covers so many song styles. First, I was interested, then beguiled, and eventually flabbergasted. Every emotion: from joy, through sadness, to wry laughter, to falling down laughter. It's all here! Oh...and some goan worthy rhymes. I'm down to the last 100 and this has been the best moment. Well... along with discovering P.J. Harvey.
I've listened to every song on this album, but never in one focused sitting. I'm always charmed by a self-imposed artistic challenge and the story of Stephin Merritt listening to Sondheim covers at a gay bar in New York and being inspired to write a massive collection of songs exploring the theatrical and pop music traditions that comprise "love songs" is iconic. Tongue in cheek yet tender, the album is a thesis statement on different kinds of love and the concept of and motifs used in love songs from a broad spectrum of musical genres and tropes. To sum up: "The book of love has music in it. In fact, that's where music comes from. Some of it is just transcendental. Some of it is jut really dumb."
A dazzling variety of love songs in a cornucopia of musical styles and voices. Madly creative, with loads of tongue-in-cheek humor--and true to the subtleties of committed, loving relationships. "The Book of Love" is one of the great love songs, but I'd never listened to the rest of the album until now. My bad.
If you’re to go to the effort of conceiving, writing, practising, refining, recording, mixing, mastering, distributing performing and touring a 69-song concept album then I feel that it’s only fair that I judge you exclusively on the merits of your 69-song concept album. Did the concept, in that most ineffable manner of speaking, succeed? Did it justify the additional demands placed on vinyl producers, warehouse logisticians, shipping and last-mile delivery companies, record shops, listeners and anyone else involved in the process of creating and participating in art? Did The Magnetic Fields manage to make something that’s greater than the sum of the sixty-actual-nine parts presented? From the offset, I’m unsure. I’m into song two (admittedly, still less than 3% of the way through the record) and I’m fearing that what I’m about to spend almost three hours subjecting myself and my family to is an exercise in the art of the possible. Yes, a good enough 69-song record about love can be made, just don’t expect it to move you beyond a polite toe-tap. Enjoy the concept because it’s the concept that really sells it! A minute or so later those clouds of doubt are further massing. My mind has raced off. What if the 69 OK songs about love leave me little space but to conclude that all of this is, this whole thing, creativity, concepts like “essential listening”, all of it, is just so many appeals to a completely predictable cultural median value. The joking use of “69” isn’t in reference to, ahem mutuality, but is rather a coded message about music itself being a sort of analogue for a composite number – multiply two positive integers and anyone can score a hit. What if this album about love forces me to fall out of love with … music? As is so often the case, “A chicken with its head cut off” forces a sharp re-centering of perspective. It’s a funny song, honky-tonking its way around the place like the titular beheaded chook. But then it starts to dawn on me – this isn’t a throwaway line. It’s actually a really quite perfect analogy for a set of feelings that might be best captured by the image of that poor bird. Who, I ask you, hasn’t been made to feel like a chicken with its head cut off by love? Have you ever lived otherwise? It all clicks into place for me from here. There are truly fantastic standalone songs that I’ll cherish forever (“Sweet-Lovin’ Man”, “No One Will Ever Love You”); surreal ditties (“Punk Love”, “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits”); tunes that, given their subject matter, make me feel appropriately uncomfortable (“I Can’t Touch You Anymore”) or bittersweet and wistful (“I Don’t Want to Get Over You”) or reflective of how profoundly in-love one can be lucky enough to be (“Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”). Even the stuff that doesn’t really work as ‘a song I like’ doesn’t fail to move me (a boudoir is the last place “For We Are The King of the Boudoir” should be experienced). This is an epic kaleidoscope, a constantly shifting tangle of states. We’re in love, out of love; experiencing love unrequited, giving love, returning it with interest. We’re also in ourselves, in our beds, at our best or brought low by it. It’s visceral. It’s essential. It’s fucking everything, the whole fucking point. When I proposed to Fleur, I wrote an accompanying letter. In that, I borrowed from Alain Badiou, for whom “Love is a quest for truth.” It’s a line given fresh resonance by this collection of songs. And it’s a collection of songs that gives the most important thing in any life exactly the attention it deserves. So yeah, Magnetic Fields “succeeded”. This is a masterpiece.
Discovering that the godawful book of love song by Gavin James was a cover is a true mindfuck. This is easily one of the longest albums on the list, and kind of hard to judge it as a regular album because of it. 69 love songs is what it says on the tin, with no broader overarching theme or motive besides just writing a whole lot of stand alone love songs. For a 3 hour album it never really gets boring, having 3 vocalists and a huge variety in instruments and approaches to songmaking makes every track at least interesting. The entire album just kind of sucks you in and gently flies by as you fall in and out of focusing on the individual songs. I liked a lot of the tracks here, too many to count. I'm really happy to have listened this album but it will probably take a long time to visit it again.
It's an eclectic mix, and I'm not sure if I'm in favour of the massive 69 songs, but there are plenty of nuggets of gold amongst them and I enjoyed listening to it.
already listened and love
I'm biased because I discovered thos album early on while dating my now wife... so it played a big part as the soundtrack to our relationship. But, I also do like th3 ambition of covering love in all it's forms, from sweet to sad, and from silly to... horny.
3 full lp's with an abundance of stellar pop tunes and lyrics on the subject of love in all its aspects. Brilliant.
glub wtf was that simile I'm sobning so harf its 8;30 I'm on the bus wtf... 10/10
It’s a long one but a great one. Lots of gems in the mix. And of course at that length a lot of not gems. But even those are often interesting.
I am thrilled to see this as the AOTD. I am a huge fan of Stephin Merritt and all of his projects — I love his voice, and his lyrics have a certain sensibility that resonates a lot with me. I find them very clever and often hilarious. To begin, I love the concept of this album. It starts with one of the most, if not THE most, ubiquitous themes in popular music: the love song. By allowing, or forcing, himself to come up with 69 variations on this theme, we end up winding through the many forms it can take and feelings it can represent. Not every song feels fully fleshed out and the end result is something that feels like a three-hour brainstorming session on one of music’s—and life’s—biggest subjects. Although this album is thematically narrow, it covers a lot of ground musically. There are banjos and synths and show tunes and just about everything in between. It’s a wild and very fun ride. Favorite tracks: “A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off”, “The Book of Love”, “Time Enough for Rocking When We’re Old”, “Papa Was a Rodeo”… there’s so many. I can’t say I love every track on this album, but I can say I love everything about this album. 10/10
5 - I can happily say that I’ve had this and it’s over. 3 hours is a lot. I think some at the end are better but I honestly had trouble sitting through. I’ll be saving this—it’s a 5 easily—because I want to keep coming back to explore
Whew, imagine being able to just put out sixty-nine solid bangers all at the same time. Kid Rock couldn't even manage to do one.
4 for the music, plus 1 for the audacity
Definition of commitment to the bit. I am definitely biased because I’ve loved this album for years and saw them perform it live. I probably wouldn’t love it if I listened to it here for the first time, which makes me want to relisten to some previous albums (looking at you, Simon and Garfunkel). It is a testament to the songwriting that with 69 songs and minimal instrument variation, all the songs sound pretty distinctive. Every time I listen to the album I find a new favorite. Book of Love is one of my favorite love songs of all time. Nothing Matters when we’re Dancing - full of such fondness for other people, a delight I don’t want to get over you - puts heartbreak into words so well. I think I need a new heart - so catchy! Book of Love - an instant classic. This song is what music is about to me and will live in my heart forever. “In fact that’s where music comes from. Some of it is just transcendental. Some of it is just really dumb” and that just sums up the whole album, why I love it, and why despite its long run time, it speaks so honestly to so many people. How fucking romantic - yeah, I see why people don’t like this one though lol Punk love - another one I could do without… Very funny - this song gets me :( Grand Canyon - I feel like a trailblazer with a cowboy hat when I listen to this song Washington DC - every dc resident should hear this song, so sweet Long forgotten fairytale - his voice has just the right amount of energy for the techno going on in the back The way you say goodnight is another song I would rank in the top romantic songs ever written It’s a crime makes me bop my head Yeah! Oh, Yeah! - Very funny, makes me laugh every time How to say goodbye - masterful story telling
Well, I figured it had to happen eventually. Here it is, what I considered to be the wall of my group's walls before I had the displeasure of discovering that Ella Fitzgerald album: 69 LOVE SONGS. A nearly three-hour triple album consisting of... Well, just as the album's title says, with 23 of these suckers a disc. It's a tall order to ask, and there's not any way to cheat like there was with the Ella Fitzgerald album and its decades-later "best of" compilation. Hell, a lot of people in my group were talking about taking the album one disc a day at a time. And that's probably the most sensible solution here. Me, though? I decided, "Aw, fuggit. I'll get this album all out of the way now." And thus, I broke these nearly-three hours into twelve chunks (following the six 10" disc vinyl release) and listened to them across how-many hours. My goal, then, was simple: treat this thing like Prince's EMANCIPATION and try to find a good single album in this mess. Which kind of defeats the point of why this thing was made, but I doubt I'm ever gonna come back to the whole package, so... How did I fair? To begin with, lemme speak generally about this album: I actually like quite a fair bit of it. Yeah, a lot of songs on here remind me of They Might Be Giants or Sparks, with some of the weird angles it takes love songs at. As well, the woman who sings sometimes sounds like she comes direct from Chumbawamba, and I love the woman who sings in **that band** a lot, so that's another thumbs up from me. Reminding me of any of those bands is a big "plus" in my book. I wanna credit the TMBG and Sparks comparison, too, for why I ended up paying so much attention to the lyrics. Like, as I've stated so many times in my reviews, I'm "melody first, lyrics second," so if you've made music where I can actually pay attention to the lyrics... Jus', wow, million points in your favor. And I'd forgotten how much a song's melody can be improved by some good lyrics, 'cuz there's some songs on here I found legit beautiful. Pretty, at least. Like, goodness, it's sure been worthwhile for me to dig in. But let's narrow in on that. "Digging in." Unavoidably and obviously, the biggest problem with this album is that there's too much album. If you're willing to take the time to sift through it, you're bound to come out with a lot of material you like. But that's a tall, tall order to ask anyone, to sit through 69 songs and nearly three hours to find the smaller album within. It's why I haven't actually done this sort of thing yet with Prince's EMANCIPATION, even as much as I want to. Like, even accepting this thing's concept, I shouldn't **have** to play album editor, y'know? Sure, I can find it fun, but it's not something you should be asking of everyone. And especially if you listen to this whole thing in one straight shot instead of breaking it up into chunks like me... Like, even before I started playing this album I didn't agree with the 1/5 reviews I saw, but I can't act like I don't know where they come from. It's very easy for the ambition you'd hafta have to make something like this to be mistaken for complete and unashamed ego. Or maybe it's the other way around–who knows? For my money, though... Aw, hell, even if I know I'm never gonna listen to this thing in full ever again, I'll slap this thing with a 5. Not every song on here is perfect or even all that special (which would be a miracle if they were given there's 69 here), but way too many of them appealed to me specifically to really mind those lesser ones too much. Besides, this thing's such a unique experience. There's only maybe two or three albums I can think of that could provide something like this, and I doubt any of them would be as enjoyable or live up to this thing's level of consistency and quality material. I'm completely sympathetic for anyone who'd hate this thing, but, hey: at least the songs on here weren't all soul-drainingly similar like that Ella Fitzgerald album was. Seriously, goodness, now **that's** a slog... Now, about that "single good album" I said I'd whittle this thing down into... Well, unfortunately, it'd require a bit more time than I really had today. I will probably make one down the line, certainly—I didn't put all this effort into consideration for nothing—but for this review, allow me to close things out with my two favorite songs from each chunk. The "24 Song Loves," if you will. I'unno. (Also, apparently Daniel Hader, aka Lemony Snicket, played on this thing? I literally didn't find that out until the last few seconds of the last song. Well, I'll be damned.) A: "I Don't Believe In The Sun"; "All My Little Words" B: "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits"; "The Book Of Love" C: "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long"; "The One You Really Love" D: "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing"; "Sweet-Lovin' Man" ==(23)== E: "Grand Canyon"; "No One Will Ever Love You" F: "(Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy)"; "Promises Of Eternity" G: "Washington, D.C."; "Papa Was A Rodeo" H: "Epitaph For My Heart"; "The Way You Say Good-Night" ==(46)== I: "Busby Berkeley Dreams"; "I'm Sorry I Love You" J: "The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure"; "Wi' Nae Wee Balm We'll Me Beget" K: "Queen Of The Savages"; "Blue You" L: "How To Say Goodbye"; "The Night You Can't Remember" ==(69)==
Is this the longest album on this project? The sheer scope of this album is wild. People who don't give this a chance because of length are really missing out. There's some really great stuff on here.
Guay. Le voy a poner un 5 porque me gustaría tenerlo en vinilo, aunque no me ha encantado del todo como para un 5. Pero, en general, lo querría tener.
Another one I know very well! Decided to listen to disc 3 as it's the one I've listened to least. It was definitely weaker than the rest - which is natural given the ammount of songs. If I wasn't already familiar with it, I may have disliked this in the context of the 1001 project, where we have to listen to it all in one go. However, I am very fond of this record and think it has great stand out songs. 5 for ambition and its place in my heart!
This one is an all-time favourite. An in-depth study not necessarily about love (after all, we know nothing about love) but about that great art form, the love song. Some of it's just transcendental, and some of it's just really dumb. Could this have been shorter, tighter, more glossily produced and a bit more 'curated'? Perhaps, but then it wouldn't be anywhere near what it is; you'll find jazz, country, pop, indie rock, a bit of electro and a lot more that doesn't really fit any label except that it's a version of a love song. I bought it years ago for The Book Of Love, after I fell for the Peter Gabriel cover. But I found that to be just the tip of the iceberg and a wonderful gateway drug for the creativity, humour and genius of this simply marvellous album.
Not enough songs! I really do love this record and like to take time every few months to just sit down and listen to the whole thing from start to finish but realize for most people it's too mighty of a task!
This album feels like one that they used to try to sell you through commercials in the early 2000s. They start by pitching 20 love songs. But wait there's more! If you call today, we're going to throw in 20 bonus love songs. That's a 20 love song value absolutely free. But we're not going to stop there- we're going to throw in the third disc, 60 love song! And if you call within the next hour, we're going to give 9 extra bonus love songs. That's a 69 song value for the price of just 20! This album actually slaps though. 69 different genres and 69 different takes on love. In reality, love is such a complicated emotion and so many bands are so happy to talk about it so simply. This band takes the time to explore the emotion in depth and changes the music so dramatically around the exploration of love. It’s not always easy listening and you won’t find any dad rocking guitar solos on here but it is honest to god, capital A Art.
Loved what I heard but so much to absorb, giving a 5 because I want to flag and come back to this one.
Hands down an absolute masterpiece. I love the Magnetic Fields and Stephin Merritt is a goddamn genius and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
Long, amazing, quirky. It took me 2 sessions to listen due to having to go to bed. I already had it in my favorites but hadn't listened to the entire thing. You're not going to put it on for a road trip but listening at home on a nice system, it really works.
I have loved this "album," 3-disc set of songs, since it came out. Listening back, the first disc is definitely the strongest, but there are so many incredible songs on the second and third discs, as well. And, just in general, there are songs that are just complete classics, now, such as "The Book of Love" which was covered by Peter Gabriel. Just brilliant songwriting and beautiful, sincere yet sardonic lyrics.
I went into this day of listening already mad at the album for being so fucking long- three hours of love songs? WTF is that shit? I almost even let this be the first album I skipped- I was gonna give it a one and say, “Fuck you Magnetic Fields, hire an editor next time, you cheap bastards. Why not just take the twelve best out of the lot and make a normal album?” Well, that question never gets answered. And even with everything else I’m writing, I still think they should’ve just picked the twelve best and made a normal album. But, I had a long, boring project to do at work and thought, “Well, shit. I’m gonna listen to three hours of music anyway. Might as well be the album of the day.” I am glad I did. First off, I hadn’t heard of them before, but I love his voice. I love Bass vocalists, like that cat from Type O-Negative. Which is good, because you couldn’t make it through an album of this length if you don’t like the voice. Even still, I think it was smart to bring in so many guest vocalists, if only for variety’s sake. And variety it had! All sorts of different types of love were written about, and they were written about in so many different styles and arrangements. They managed to keep it fresh for me the whole time. First time I checked how much time was left, I was already almost done with Disc Two! I thought they managed to keep it all moving along quite well. The realization that the maniacs were pulling it off- they were making a three-hour long album that I was happy to hear- pulls it up to a five, just because I’m wowed at the achievement. Having said that, having said all of this, I couldn’t tell you a bleeding single out of here after disc one because that’s when it all started to blur. Just like how you can binge a show, enjoy it all, but not really know what happened in which episode because you didn’t experience it in episodes, you experienced it as a whole construct. This is the five-star album I am least likely to revisit as a whole. It earns it for being such a special achievement, but I’ll still be happy whenever any of these songs come on my shuffle. And I still think that Magnetic Fields should have hired an editor, the cheap bastards.
did this blow me away with how great the songs were? no. am i ever going to listen to it again? probably also no. did it keep my attention for almost 3 hours without making me want to end it all? yes, so that's something.
honestly, i REALLY liked this album and thought i might be a little annoyed after a while, but i'm not and i love it.
Maybe some songs could be cut but the whole experience is worth it.
I bought this soon after stumbling across "Papa Was a Rodeo" and once drove from Seattle to Durham NC listening only to 69 Love Songs. I stopped off at Jimmy's in Chicago for a beer and when I sat down at the bar, the bartender put on a CD before taking my order. It was Vol 1 of 69 Love Songs.
When I saw that I’d been generated an album over 2 hours long, I have to admit that I sighed so hard I turned inside out. However, it was probably the best day to get this as I had an hour drive each way to work today. I found myself loving every part of this album. Instead of it feeling like a big drag, it felt like a big treat to be given so many songs. I then went looking for the vinyl online but it only seems to have been released in 10inch which I can’t play. So yeah, this is fantastic.
I still love all of this. Papa Was A Rodeo being my favorite
I complain about overlong albums... Then love this 3 hour epic. At about 23 songs and hour, it's only about 2 minutes a song, which allows it to be intensely varied and generous. If you don't like anything, it's gone and the next thing is along. But some you will wish were 10 minutes epics - The Book of Love and Busby Berkeley Dreams spring to mind...
I listened to the whole thing and I thought it was awesome. I was dubious about the length, but found it very easy, and weirdly familiar, basically a fusion of well known songs from the last 80 years through the genres of folk, pop, electro etc…I heard Jonny Cash, Pulp Fiction, Paul Simon, Bonzo Dog Doo Dar Band, Belle and Sebastian, Pet Shop Boys,… So much more, I can’t even place. A great piece of work, although the comedy did make me feel a bit trolled when ever I started feeling sentimental or enjoy the tunes
I was terrified when I saw this album was actually 69 songs long, that this album would be boring and gimmicky. But I could not have been more wrong. The stylistic versatility and genre diversity really make this a compelling album. No song feels out of place, and it doesn't feel bloated despite its nearly 3 hour run time. I absolutely loved every song
Ah, it's finally here! I spied this coming up a few months back and already knew about it but hadn't heard it. Then Spotify kept chucking Epitaph of My Heart at me which I found curiously lovely. So, I've been listening to it in stages over the last few weeks. Don't think I would ever listen to it from start to finish in the way I absolutely would with Mellon Collie (although that's a whole hour shorter), however there is so much to adore here. Not love, adore. Yes there's the odd bit of filler or rather, throwaway stuff and short songs, but there's always a little bit of magic. I love this deep voice, sounds like mine when I've got a cold, or just had too much to shout the night before at a gig or the football. Strongly reminds me of David Berman, and musically similar to some of his last record Purple Mountains (which has a strong claim to be included in the book, but they did put one Silver Jews record in so that's okay). Also love the variety broken up by different singing voices and musical styles, is it two different blokes and a woman at times? There's no denying this was a ridiculously ambitious project, is it still pretentious if you actually pull it off? I love so very much of this. In 2017, the Magnetic Fields did it again with a 5-disc, 50 Song Memoir, one for every year of the main guy's life, presumably. There's probably 9 or so tracks here I don't care much for, but it's still getting top marks for the sheer audacity of it. These guys are playing this over two nights at the Albert hall in town over the summer and I'm sorely tempted to go to at least one night. The tickets are expensive though. Faves - Epitaph, book of love, Rabbits, I Don't Want to get over you, the One You Really Love, World Love, My Only Friend, Promises Eternity, How to Say Goodbye, Busby Berkeley Dreams, I'm Sorry I Love You, Acoustic Guitar, Death of Ferdinand
amazing queer love songs, all 3 volumes are a must listen.
I really love that this was even attempted. And a triple album gets a pass for being so ambitious. But there’s 1 outstanding record, maybe an excellent double record worth of songs here. But hell, I’ll go 5 because it’s 3 records of interesting, quirky, lovely, fun songs.
As weird and wonderful as I remember it. It's hard to judge an album that is such a mix of styles and genres. For every 10 songs, I loved one and skipped one. I've giving it 5 stars for just being so ambitious.
I genuinely loved this. The arrangements, the electronic section, the male and female vocals, the writing, the way it bounces about between styles. Perfect. An album of 69 love songs should not be this good.
Heard of the album but never listened to any of the songs until now. What a surprise. I really enjoyed it, all 69 of them.
For someone like me, brought up in the 50’s, in a home where my daily soundtrack was the so-called Great American Songbook (even after the arrival of Elvis), these 69 songs were a revelation. But it wasn’t until I heard the reference to Rodgers & Hart, composers of the standard Isn’t It Romantic (1932) in How Fucking Romantic (track 15 on Disc One), that I realised where Stephin Merritt was coming from. I named my son Lorenz after Lorenz Hart, one of the great Broadway lyricists (My Funny Valentine, Blue Moon, The Lady Is A Tramp, etc.) and was known for his witty rhymes - e.g. from I Wish I Were In Love Again : “ When love congeals It soon reveals The faint aroma of performing seals The double-crossing of a pair of heels I wish I were in love again”. My favourite on 69 Songs comes in the very last track, Zebra : “We've got so many tchotchkes We've practically emptied the Louvre In most of our palaces There's hardly room to maneuver Well I shan't go to Bali today I must stay home and Hoover Up the gold dust That doesn't mean we're in love“. I should have realised after Track 5, Reno Dakota, that the musical references here were coming from all over : “ Reno Dakota, I'm no Nino Rota”. Track 11 on CD Two - My Only Friend - is a beautiful tribute to Billie Holiday, who I named my daughter after, so, by that stage, the album was becoming a real family affair, across three generations. I’ve only had time to play this once, but it is full of winners. World Love (sounds like a world music track from a Soweto album); Washington D.C. (girl group sound); Papa Was A Rodeo (70’s singer/songwriter/c&w); and so many songs where Merritt could be channelling Leonard Cohen with that voice. Look, the whole things worth it for Busby Berkeley Dreams. I love this recording & will be hammering it severely.
How you keep something this long this engaging is a work of passion and art.
Y'all have no idea. Certified classic. "Oh no it's too looong waaah." News flash, this whole activity is too long.
It's 69 love songs
When I first saw this album name, I (with the sometimes-maturity of a 14-year-old boy) chuckled. Clever use of an album name to make a joke, I thought. Then I realized the album was actually 69 songs deep. I really enjoyed it. I think most songs in the world drag on too long. We need to bring the 2-minute songs back! I did not think I’d be rating this a 5-star before I started.
It took me a month to listen to this album. A lot of songs aren't that good. That being said, the ones that are distinct. It's a cool concept, even when you don't like a song half the interest is figuring out what's going on. There's these squelch-y synths on some tracks that kinda get me. BT - Sweet Lovin' Man - If You Don't Cry - You're My Only Home - My Only Friend - Papa Was a Rodeo - Underwear - It's a Crime - Bitter Tears - I Can't Touch You Anymore
The platonic ideal of a 5.
Lange plaat, maar leuke mix tussen grappig & sad
4.5 the bangers make this worthy of a 5 but it is simply too long
ukulele, Funny Music Production sounds/samples
One listen, two people, three sittings. Uncounted harmonizations, laughs. Five stars. All that to say context is important, signposted by the title up front: Fair enough. The conceit is ridiculous, but absolutely carried. Be prepared for a healthy set of cuts with terrible production, switches-of-vocalist that make no sense. But the concept somehow achieves narrative, tenuous as it clearly is.
Volume 1 personal highlights: "All My Little Words", "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits", "The One You Really Love", "The Book of Love" V2 HL: "Papa Was a Rodeo", "Kiss Me Like You Mean It", "The Sun Goes Down...", "Time Enough for Rocking...", "Promises of Eternity", "Abigail" V3 HL: "I'm Sorry I Love You", "Bitter Tears", "Yeah! Oh Yeah!", "Blue You" (Vol 2 out of 3 was my favourite) The idea to listen to one volume a day came to me about 3 songs in, because I figured I'd get angry after listening to this for three hours straight. As I learned, my tolerance to 69 Love Songs was higher than I expected, They cast their net wide, so much that hardly anyone's going to like every track here. Right? Plus, my love of the White Album has taught me that even the greatest works are allowed to have a little hot garbage mixed in. Also, finding out Lemony Snicket laid down some accordion was a rush. Half expected to read Kenneth Oppel played the flute or something March 20-23, 2023
detta va favorittalbumet mitt i 2020 hehe
Ote vanhasta taideteoksestani: One morning in 2004, I was woken up by the sound of a package being delivered to my door. In it I found the suggestively titled 69 Love Songs by indie pop band the Magnetic Fields. It was sent to me by my long-distance lover, who at the time claimed never-ending love for me. His love wasn’t, of course, never-ending, and after the (from my perspective) devastating break-up, I found, somewhat ironically, comfort in that very same album. ”I could dress in black and read Camus, smoke clove cigarettes and drink Vermouth, like I was 17, that would be a scream, but I don't want to get over you.” Do listen to the whole album, though, if you haven’t. So many little stories about love or the lack of.
This album is NOT too long. You're just not long enough!
Popurrí de estilos en canciones de amor. Fascinante. Un 5 le doy.
Guay. Le voy a poner un 5 porque me gustaría tenerlo en vinilo, aunque no me ha encantado del todo como para un 5. Pero, en general, lo querría tener.
Popurrí de estilos en canciones de amor. Fascinante. Un 5 le doy.
Obožavam ovaj album al mozda je maaaaaaaaaaaaalkice dug
Najbolji trostruki album😊
I haven't cared for other Magnetic Fields stuff before and I don't normally listen to a lot of love songs or slow music but this was great.
One of my all-time favs!
60. Tenho de te dizer, meu, foi um prazer ouvir-te. MotA: Absolutely Cuckoo "Don't fall in love with me yet We only recently met True I'm in love with you but You might decide I'm a nut"
Excelente, perfecto para una cita
Quirky, endless fun. Some very creative and amazing songs on here!
Great songs with much variety
I already adored All My Little Words so I may be biased, but I loved this. So whimsical and witty and folksy and great. It was good hearing more of the Magnetic Fields.
Lots of filler but the good songs are so good that it gets a 5.
This is great
Legendary - if not long and repetitive
iso bängeri, jos ois loppunut ekaan levyyn/ olisi kaikki naputettu siihen kivaksi paketiksi, niin olisi helposti ollut 5 tähteä, mutta iso väsy kerkesi tulla mutta!!! tällä on ihan käsittämätön lore joten arvostan myös tätä kolmen levyn kokonaisuutta myös
It is a lot, but the songs are so sharp, ironic, thoughtful, funny,emotional...and the sounds are varied enough. In terms of an exercise in writing unique material on the most wtitten on subject of all time, it is epic.
this is a great album. neutral milk hotel meets tom waits. definitely putting this in the rotation and will look out for it on vinyl
-great to finally be forced to listen to this all the way through -a "friend" once made me a playlist with "absolutely cuckoo" on it and it confused me. we don't talk much anymore. beautiful song though. -i am quick to say that albums, even albums i love, drag on, but this one comes surprisingly close to not doing that despite its length. it was only towards the end, where forgettable faux medieval songs get stacked on top of each other, that i tired a bit.
What an odyssey... Of course, it's way too long but listening to an album a sitting is reasonable and you have to respect the sheer amount of creativity and hutzpah that went into this.
Of course there's some duds, but overall a really fun album.
"I don't believe in the sun" has captured my attention. This is a good album.
I hope the whole album isn't just 3 hours of inoffensive dull.indie rock like Absolutely Cuckoo... Ok, " A chicken with its head cut off" has a little energy at least. There's also a reasonable amount of variety honestly. Found myself surprised to be enjoying this album. That I wasn't bored of this after three hours tells you that this album is really well done.
I groaned and expected a slog through 2 and a half hours of drudgery when this came up. Quite the opposite: varied, funny, creative, sweet, clever. It took me a while to complete it all the way through, but this is certainly an album worth listening to before you die.
I really enjoyed this record lots of fun songs, I will have to listen to completely as only 20 songs in but from what I heard so far, good record.
Eclectic, in parts beautiful, quirky a mixed bag at times but always interesting.
10/10 for ambition! There is a 5 star album worth of material here for sure, but inevitably there is also some filler. I hadn't listened to this for at least a decade and was pleased to discover I had new favourites on this listen.
I've heard this before but not for some time. An amazing piece of work. The closest thing on this list so far was Guided By Voices, but the subs on this all feel more polished and crafted than they did.
An ambitious project that you kinda have to be in the mood for. I like this kind of music, luckily! This occasionally reminded me of They Might Be Giants (particularly TMBG's "Fingertips" songs), which for me is a good thing.
It was actually pretty good
On the one hand, this album is absolutely a gimmick. On the other hand, some of the songs are pretty good. Hard to rate. I guess using my typical methods, I'd have to give this four stars as I would likely listen to it again for fun.
There are 69 songs on this three disc (for old people) album. That is not nice. I knew two of these songs, Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side and The Book of Love, prior to hearing this entire album...or entire three albums. This is just a huge album and it would take days to appropriately listen to every song on here and evaluate how much could be cut. I think a nice 20 song album would be most appropriate, but what do I know? I have never written 69 songs that I felt were worthy of inclusion on an album. For a group of three albums that have 69 songs on them, there is more cohesion than one would expect from song-to-song and disc-to-disc. I am going to listen to this album after today, just because there isn't enough time in the day to listen to all these tunes. I did enjoy this album and there is very obviously filler on here. It would be remarkable if an album with 69 songs did not have filler.
Nice!
I had burned CD copies of this album back when…well, when people would burn copies of CDs…but I don’t believe I’d ever sat and listened to the entire thing in one go until today. It was a more enjoyable experience than I anticipated listening to it as a whole. It’s funny, poignant, annoying, catchy, there are some genuinely great songs on here; there’s some total garbage. So what if it’s uneven? That’s not the point. Totally deserves to be on this list.
Braced myself going into it, but actually found myself enjoying a good portion of the album! It didn't feel like 2hr 52 min at all... Definitely far from perfect, but every song had its charm and I enjoyed the cheekiness of it all. High 4
jedan od meni najdražih albuma koji sam bezbroj puta preslušao od početka do kraja jest »sandinista!« grupe clash, koji je izvorno objavljen u formatu od tri ploče i traje skoro dva i pol sata. ovaj pak album objavljen je na tri CD-a, zbog čega je negdje pola sata duži. i album je izvrstan! uopće nisam mislio da će ovako zvučati. ima pjesama bez kojih se stvarno moglo (uglavnom kratke i bezvezne), ali nekako mi sve to na kraju funkcionira. dao sam si vremena i tretirao svaki CD kao jednu cjelinu, što slušanje čini puno ugodnijim. zbog nedosljednosti i nagruvanosti materijala dat ću četvorku, ali jako sam sve u svemu ugodno iznenađen
Loveeeee this album. I would’ve never thought lol
Some great songs I don't want to get over you I think i need a new heart
Wow so hard this one. I thought 3 hours would destroy me, and maybe they did, but most songs are good and unique. I appreciate the experiment.
Super long, some great songs
I found this to be a really interesting concept album.
Great stuff…. But 3 hours though, I did not manage to complete but will revisit. Genuinely different.
First there's the childish amusement of seeing the name of this album - Then there's the horror of realising that this is indeed 69 songs long. Surprisingly though I couldn't help but enjoy this - full of charm, wit and character.
It was like actually 69 songs
Long forgotten fairytale the goat
An amazing concept, and done very well. Keeping a good level of quality.over 69 songs is impressive
The amount of songs in this album was a bit daunting but I enjoyed every single one. My favorites were: "All My Little Words", "The Book Of Love", "My Sentimental Melody", "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing", "The Things We Did And Didn't Do", "Time Enough For Dancing When We're Old", "No One Will Ever Love You", "You're My Only Home" and "Papa Was A Rodeo"
No conocía está banda. Me gustó un montón; muy experimental.
Wow, that was a trip. It's bloated, of course, and it's mostly novelty songs that I don't have much interest in revisiting again. But it was clever and often funny, too, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I'm glad I listened to the whole thing. I had to pause the project and spread this over two days. Washington, D.C. was a personal favorite.
This album has some real highs, but it simply does not have 69 songs worth of good material. Love is Like Jazz is trash, but that was the only song I actively disliked, so in the end I think this is surprisingly close to fulfilling the promise of its length (not quite there though).
I have all the Mag Fields' records up to and including this one, and spent several years in the late 90s listening to them obsessively and seeing them live. This was the last one I bought, though; I think it was so long that I guess that was enough Mag Fields for me. But anyway. Some of these songs on here are still my favorites because of the cleverness of their lyrics: "Papa Was a Rodeo," "Washington, DC," "Strange Eyes." "Yeah, Oh Yeah" is particularly amusing, the way it turns the pop song convention of a verse with agreeing chorus of "yeah" to be much darker: - What a dark and dreary life! Are you reaching for a knife? Would you really kill your wife? - Yeah, oh yeah As a whole, the record is a bit much, though. I think if I were more into show tunes, I'd like some of the sillier (and/or more sincere) things on here better - Merritt originally conceived it as a theatrical revue, which isn't a thing I would tend to go for. But the songs I like on here are great.
Impressive!!
A great collection of charming songs. I've had the virtue of hearing this before, and I don't know if it'd really suited to a challenge such as this by nature of it's length, but it's worth a go.
I was really concerned about an album I didn't know featuring 69 songs. But it's going on the listen-again list so I can pay more attention to it.
I can't give it a 5 because it's obviously all over the place but some of my favorite songs are on this - you could cut it to an incredible 12-15 song album no problem
Bijna drie uur muziek, waar moet je dan op letten? Je zet het op, gaat er wat anders bij doen, en je merkt wel of iets opvalt tussen de 69 muziekstukken. Er wordt lollig gemusiceerd, het heeft iets losjes, folky, af en toe experimenteel of ironisch, de Nick Cave-imitaties zijn niet van de lucht. Heren en dames wisselen elkaar af, weinig beklijft maar het is zeker ook geen straf om dit op te hebben. Waarom staat dit in de lijst? Als ik 69 liefdesliedjes had geschreven, koos ik er de 12 beste uit, zodat ik een écht goed album had. En de overige 57, daar kun je dan altijd nog wat bonustracks uit strooien of er een concept-album uit samenstellen. Maar nee, we zijn eigenwijs, het publiek krijgt de hele bende ongefilterd voor z'n plaat. Of ga je me vertellen dat ze nog veel méér hadden geschreven, en dat dit de selectie is?
Twangy, alt rock with good vocals
Really liked this - with the obvious caveat that I didn’t listen to it all. Variation on a theme but lots of variation. Ambitious. Engaging lyrics. Wish I’d explored them earlier as had Papa Was A Rodeo on one of my playlists for years. Will need to listen to it all at some point. 4 doesn’t seem right when I gave RHCP 2. This is much more than twice as good.
More than half way through so probably sufficient to rate it.. I like it, overall, something of the multi instrumentation of Sufjan (love all the ukelele) but without quite hitting his heights of musicality. Fav so far,: The Things We Did and Didnt Do - see, I did make it to at least the end of Disc 1...
I did actually listen to all 69 songs. This is an extremely impressive album. Writing is great, every song has a unique character and instrumentation despite nearly all of it performed by Merritt. I don’t love his voice, especially when he pushes the low register on a LOT of the songs, but the longer the album the more and more I was impressed by the sheer magnitude of the project. Nice.
i'll be honest, I've been putting off rating this one for a while. not because i don't enjoy it, but because of the sheer length. i've gotten through it in the past though, this will be my 3rd or 4th time overall (to anyone who might come across this: i'm so sorry in advance for how long this rating is gonna be) Absolutely Cuckoo - 3/5 I Don’t Believe in the Sun - 5/5 All My Little Words - 5/5 A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off - 5/5 Reno Dakota - 3/5 I Don’t Want to Get Over You - 5/5 Come Back from San Francisco - 4/5 The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side - 4/5 Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits - 2/5 The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be - 4/5 I Think I Need a New Heart - 5/5 The Book of Love - 5/5 Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long - 4/5 How Fucking Romantic - no rating The One You Really Love - 4/5 Punk Love - no rating Parades Go By - 4/5 Boa Constrictor - 4/5 A Pretty Girl Is Like... - 3/5 My Sentimental Music - 3/5 Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing - 5/5 Sweet-Lovin’ Man - 5/5 The Things We Did and Didn’t Do - 4/5 Roses - no rating Love Is Like Jazz - 1/5 When My Boy Walks Down the Street - 5/5 Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old - 3/5 Very Funny - 4/5 Grand Canyon - 4/5 No One Will Ever Love You - 5/5 If You Don't Cry - 4/5 You're My Only Home - 4/5 (Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy - 5/5 My Only Friend - 3/5 Promises of Eternity - 3/5 World Love - 4/5 Washington, D.C. - 5/5 Long-Forgotten Fairytale - 4/5 Kiss Me Like You Mean It - 4/5 Papa Was a Rodeo - 5/5 Epitaph for My Heart - 5/5 Asleep and Dreaming - 3/5 The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Crazy - 5/5 The Way You Say Good-Night - 4/5 Abigail, Belle of Kilronan - 3/5 I Shatter - 4/5 Underwear - 4/5 It’s a Crime - 4/5 Busby Berkeley Dreams - 3/5 I’m Sorry I Love You - 4/5 Acoustic Guitar - 5/5 The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure - 4/5 Love in the Shadows - 3/5 Bitter Tears - 4/5 Wi’ Nae Wee Bairn Ye’ll Me Beget - 2/5 Yeah! Oh, Yeah! - 5/5 Experimental Music Love - no rating Meaningless - 4/5 Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin - 3/5 Queen of Savages - 4/5 Blue You - 3/5 I Can’t Touch You Anymore - 4/5 Two Kinds of People - 2/5 How to Say Goodbye - 4/5 The Night You Can't Remember - 3/5 For We Are the King of the Boudoir - 2/5 Strange Eyes - 4/5 Xylophone Track - 3/5 Zebra - 3/5 Average score: 3.9/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ definitely not my fav Magnetic Fields release (i prefer Get Lost and Holiday, idk if they made the 1001 albums list or not). still, it's a nice album with it's own charm, even if it is long af this can truly be some depressing music. good thing i'm part of the demographic that loves to torture themselves with sad music from time to time. i can understand why this wouldn't be most people's cup of tea though
Fav- I don’t wanna get over you 4/5
i really liked this, it stood really consistently through it all
I've gone through this album before and boy is it a long one. Stephen Merritt is a really impressive artist. He's been in several musical projects including The Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies, and The 6ths. He's said in an interview with my local radio station that he likes albums like the sort that Frank Sinatra puts out with titles that explain what all the songs are. He likes to know what's going to happen for the second half hour to hour. He sees himself as doing the same thing, but he'll do parodies of it. He says he rarely has any idea what he's doing. Some songs, like "Punk Love" and "Plant White Roses", he has written in less time that it takes to sing them. Other songs, like "Ethan Frome" and "At the Pyramid" have taken 30 years to write. It's interesting how differing his process has been for different artists. This album isn't just about the usual form of love, the lovely, heartwrenching kind. It is rather all form of love, including the kind that isn't really love and is just a husband murdering his wife. It's said that while sitting in a gay bar, inspiration struck him to create 100 songs introducing himself to the world. That number soon turned to 69 as a much lower, more manageable one. He decided he'd have a revue with four drag queens and whichever songs they liked best, would make it onto the album. I think there is beauty in the fact of something being brief like these songs. Brief things don't take excessive time explaining things in extraneous detail, they just let what they are speak for themselves. The fact that there's so many complex, fun, beautiful songs on this album is crazy. I think I like all the songs honestly. I like the idea of the process of writing just a ton of songs. This certainly is a concept album, but a different kind than usual. My favorites are as follows: -A chicken with its head cut off -the luckiest guy on the lower east side -i think i need a new heart -the book of love -nothing matters when we're dancing -papa was a rodeo -yeah! oh yeah! -washington dc
Really good album. Not sure about 3 discs worth of music, but at least disc one is incredible.
Way too long, but I love Absolutely Cuckoo and did enjoy most of the other songs.
4.5/5
Wonderful concept album. As you can imagine, with 69 songs some work and some don't. But by and large a really fun album.
I really liked this album. It is what a christmas compilation would sound like with a valentines theme. Four stars.
Fun experiment album!
I'm torn: On the one hand I love this record to bits, on the other hand I never want to listen to it again start to finish. It's good, it really is - but its a challenge every time.
So long omg. Still getting through it but liking it so far
69 chansons putain !
I actually really loved this. It brought the only romance so far to my life this year. Now I only want to listen to love songs
I'm pretty sure if you release a three-hour album you're either a narcissist or have mental problems, and I am in two minds about this undertaking. It has such a sprawl that, despite fine quality, many of the songs feel undercooked (sometimes due to lack of percussion, sometimes due to them being snippets, sometimes pastiches). And yet I kept being impressed by the consistently good melodies. A strong core of songs amongst a clear quality hurdle for the rest, means the album doesn't succumb to gimmickry, in spite of it being something of a conceptual exercise (as are most of his albums thence it seems). The more I listened, the more I was impressed by the quality throughout. It has achieved something quite astonishing - a three hour, 69-song album that I did not find indulgent, and that I enjoyed more and more with each listen.
Far too many songs for a single album to have a serious and considered listen through in the chaos of everyday life😆, however, have heard various parts (discs) at various times through the years, I like many of the tracks, other less polished sketches not so much, overall ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Some filler. But nice mix
It's very good and VERY LONG
I was kinda dreading this looking at the runtime but I enjoyed it throughout. There are some absolutely brilliant tracks on here. Yes there are some that don’t 100% hit the mark but there’s nothing terrible on it and with 69 songs they all can’t be absolute bangers.
Nogle af sangene er virkelig smukke, andre er for skramlede og uharmoniske for min smag.
Great baritone voice, clever lyrics. I’m about a third of the way through but will listen to this a few times. Fun!
I did listen to this once I think. It's long. A triple cd album. Cool lo-fi-ish songs Does so many songs make the good ones better or worse? After a couple of hours non-stop, conclusion it makes them worse. But it does win you back every once in a while. A for effort, C for consistency, B for pulling it off. 3.5 rounded up Heard before? Some Owned: Yes: 41/167 (24%) Will I get? No
Lots of good songs on that album
I don't think this is best enjoyed as an album that one should listen to all at once. It's more a "pick and choose some" type of thing. Anyway, I respect its weird vibes and straightforward concept. Then again, I am an insufferable indie bitch.
There is a remarkable number of great songs here, especially for a 69-song album. If this was only a meager 50-song album, I’d have no problem giving it a 5. There are just a few too many tracks I felt could have been omitted. Best Track: All My Little Words
achei a letra das musicas bem engracadas, tem de tudo des de experimental instrumental ate uns ballads. eh 4 hrs de album entao demorei um pouco mas gostei all the way through
I listened to this album over one day during this past summer. Just a really fun listen overall. Not every song’s a masterpiece and there’s definitely some filler here and there but it’s a fun listen overall. It’s also just baffling that this guy just wrote 69 unique and distinct songs about love. Some are cute and some are pretty darn funny. Takes a while to get through, but a genuinely great experience to have at least once to hear it all.
++*: Xylophone Track ++: A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off, I Don't Want to Get Over You, Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits, The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be, The Book of Love, Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long, Punk Love, Nothing Matters When We're Dancing, The Things We Did and Didn't Do, When My Boy Walks Down the Street, Grand Canyon, (Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy, My Only Friend, World Love, Long-Forgotten Fairytale, Epitaph for My Heart, The Sun Goes Down and The World Goes Dancing, Abigail, Belle of Kilronan, I Shatter, Underwear, I'm Sorry I Love You, The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure, Love in the Shadows, Bitter Tears, Yeah! Oh, Yeah!, Experimental Music Love, Meaningless, Queen of the Savages, Strange Eyes +: Absolutely Cuckoo, All My Little Words, Come Back from San Francisco, I Think I Need a New Heart, How Fucking Romantic, The One You Really Love, Parades Go By, Sweet-Lovin' Man, Roses, Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old, If You Don't Cry, Promises of Eternity, Washington, D.C., Papa Was a Rodeo, Asleep and Dreaming, The Way You Say Good-Night, It's a Crime, Blue You, I Can't Touch You Anymore, Zebra +-: I Don't Believe in the Sun, Reno Dakota, Boa Constrictor, A Pretty Girl Is Like..., My Sentimental Melody, Very Funny, No One Will Ever Love You, You're My Only Home, Busby Berkeley Dreams, Acoustic Guitar, Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget, Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin, Two Kinds of People, How to Say Goodbye, The Night You Can't Remember, For We Are the King of the Boudoir -: The Luckiest Guy on the Lower Eastside, Love Is Like Jazz, Kiss Me Like You Mean It 7,9/10
This is the Magnetic Fields signature album
The Book of Love Busby Berkekley Dreams
Such an amazing album! So many great songs on here. The songwriting is excellent and the different styles and sounds they use here bring it to the next level. Are there some skips? Yes, but overall an amazing listening experience. Less points for how long it is. Top Songs: I Don't Believe in the Sun, Papa Was a Rodeo, All My Little Words, I Don't Want to Get Over You, Come Back From San Francisco
I went to go see them live with Jocelyn, prolly one of the worst concerts ive gone to. They sounded good but I didn't like the venue and they didn't play really any songs I knew bc this album is so mf long. Def enjoy the music in general but 69 is a lot of songs.
So they like tried to make a love album that had a love song of like every genre available in the 90s but I would say about 40 of the songs sound pretty similar and 20 songs doesn’t seem like to much for an album. But then they would have been able to name it the sex number album. 7/10
Interesting album - hints of the Beatles and 70's folk rock.
Some good songs but feels a little detached in a hipstery way.
After about 30 to 40 songs it starts to drag on a little but it is still a fantastic albums with a lot of great songs but also a lot of filter. But i do love it
Strong start with "Absolutely Cuckoo", a tongue-in-cheek sort of humorous little tune about being a challenging romantic partner. Wow, there actually are 69 love songs on this album. Another win for vocalists with low voices — I'm always surprised at how refreshing it is to hear a dude with a low voice singing anything other than opera or country. I overall really enjoyed this album, and I can't believe I actually listened to the whole thing too. There was a lot of fun wordplay and an intentional disconnect between the length of lyrical phrases and musical phrases that entertained me at times. It makes sense that Stephin Merritt was intending the album to lean towards the musical theatre side of things, and I honestly enjoyed that aspect of it. Not all of the singing was particularly well done but each vocalist seemed like a good choice for their song. "The Book Of Love" was probably my favourite track from the entire album. It's one I am sure I will come back to again multiple times. To me, the lyrics acknowledge the complexity of the concept of love and how it means something different to everyone. It's also fun that one of my dad's favourite artists, Peter Gabriel, did a cover of "The Book Of Love".
A good album, I liked Absolutely Cuckoo the most.
Another fantastic album to listen to this week. I know these are randomly generated, but 1001 Song is just slaying it. Anyway, this is a fantastic album that ...ahem... merits more than one listen. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around this many songs in one sitting, and there's a lot of gems buried in all those song. I think The Book of Love is maybe the most famous song off this album (it's certainly how I came to know about this album) and it's my favorite, but collectively this album is also really just great. It kind of boggles my mind that Stephin Merritt could just sit down and write 69 freaking pop songs that are as great as these. And there's sufficient musical diversity, not to mention wit, to keep my attention across the whole thing. All that said, I don't think it rises to a 5 for me. I'd probably give it a 4.499 because, in the end, it's a pop album and, while I've listened to it many times, it's not an album to which I will naturally gravitate.
This mystified me when I bought it based on a good review after it came out, but I've come to love it. Much of it, anyway. It has about a dozen wonderful songs (esp. Grand Canyon, when my boy walks down the street, the luckiest guy), some that are fine, some that are trifles, and some that are pretty rough listening. The self-conscious cleverness is a little off-putting, but I still like this a lot.
4/5 - Merritt's magnum opus is a giant mixed bag that is a great fit for this list, just not necessarily on an album-per-day pace. It's asking a lot to listen to this all at once, but there's some wonderful gems throughout. Come Back to SF, Book of Love, Kiss Me Like You Mean It, Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, and several others would have made a killer pop album of 12 songs, but there's also plenty of duds too -- it's 69 songs about love songs after all. This lyric from Acoustic Guitar made me laugh: Acoustic guitar, if you think I play hard Well, you could have belonged to Steve Earle Or Charo or GWAR, I could sell you tomorrow So bring me back my girl You'd better bring me back my girl
This one was a big deal with my peer group for a time. I still like it despite it being aggressively long and having a lot of filler. How could it not. In a vacuum my experience this time was probably a 3.5 that I would normally round down, but since I’ve complained so much about concept albums on here, I have to give this one the bump because I admire the commitment and execution of a concept album that is just 69 Love Songs. Exactly as advertised.
Own it often listen
This is an interesting one. It’s unique, creative, and fun. It covers so many sounds and genres. But I have no desire to listen to it ever again.
What a strange album. 69 songs, all of different vibes and lengths. Honestly impressive just on the scale and how all the songs are at least decent.
Barking mad, really. Three full hours of silly little love songs that all add up to something so beautiful and endearing, even if quite a lot of them are very daft at heart. The two best known songs - Book of Love and My Little Words - really do sum up what this album is all about. As the former says, 'some [music] is transcendental, some of it is just really dumb', and as the latter says 'if I could write for you the sweetest song you ever heard. It doesn't matter what I'll do, not for all my little words'. Just lovely.
3.5 Maybe this is too much of a good thing for a single listen. I recognized a couple of songs, and on the whole the collection varied in themes and types of music enough to keep it interesting for the runtime. I think if you really peeled back the onion on this one you'd find something special. im rounding up
This is hard to rate because it's not an experience I want to revisit anytime soon, but for today I had a lot of fun with it. ...Well actually, I hated it at the start, and thought that the music's quality did not warrant 69 songs or 3 hours of my time. But as I started paying more attention to the lyrics, I came to realize that each song is a self-contained story about love, from a pretty wide variety of perspectives. Gradually I found myself being charmed by these little snippets, and as each song ended, wondering what they were going to come up with next. There's a lot of humor and tongue-in-cheek mixed in with these heartfelt and emotional stories, and it does help in keeping the whole thing fresh. My highlight is Yeah! Oh, Yeah!, a joyful-sounding song about a couple resenting each other to the point of murder. As a standalone it wouldn't be very remarkable, and would perhaps be a bit disturbing -- but here it takes on a new meaning only possible in the wider context of this project. Suddenly it's a weirdly fun window into this darker aspect of love, and when it's over we just move on to the next. Again, I don't think everything holds up quality-wise, but I definitely see the vision and as a whole it's one of the more unique projects we've had. Standouts: A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off • Parades Go By • Nothing Matters When We're Dancing • No One Will Ever Love You • World Love • Washington, D.C. • Long-Forgotten Fairytale • Underwear • Acoustic Guitar • Yeah! Oh, Yeah! • Meaningless • Love is Like a Bottle of Gin • I Can't Touch You Anymore • How to Say Goodbye
Es un album que dura quasi 3 hores. Te un concepte molt guay perque literalment son 69 cançons d'amor. Hi ha diferents estils, coses mes experimentals, country, etc.
I finally got around to listening to this one after putting it off for a while, mostly because of its length. At three discs and about three hours long, the album’s biggest downside is definitely its sheer size. That said, I can see why it’s always at the top of chamber pop lists. I really enjoyed it’s whimsical, playful, and quirky nature. The album blends a wide variety of styles, combining indie pop with baroque, chamber music, 60’s psychedelia, Americana, synthpop, folk, and country. Despite its length, it flows together surprisingly well. Sure, I enjoyed some tracks more than others, but it didn’t feel like The Magnetic Fields stuffed it with filler songs. For such a sprawling album, it maintains a pretty consistent and enjoyable flow.
This was quite an ambitious project. Reminds of Sufjan Steven”s goal to write an album for every state. I made it through half of disc 2 and I prefer the first to the second. I’m really impressed with the lyrical output. The overall topic is love and it’s quite impressive what they’re able to squeeze out of it though the effort shines a light on how complex the subject is. I liked this. The instrumentation alone reeled me in.
This is always one that I've missed on, I've seen the cover 10,000 times and love the song The Book of Love, but never actually invested the time to dig in. It's varied enough to hold your attention, with some beautiful moments sprinkled throughout. 4/5
So... It's not bad. In fact I quite like it. But boy is it too long for my liking. Again the fact that it's at least very interesting and very good helps a lot though.
Looked at this album cover and thought, "Oh yeah, I know this one." It turns out I only knew disc 1 of this one. They really committed to that 69 bit, I guess. I commend them for that. At the same time—three hours?? At the same time—I'd tell them, "no fucking way, you have to cut some material off of this," except I don't know what I'd tell them to put on the chopping block first. A three hour album in which no significant chunks of the material are, like, objectively, memorably bad? Serious accomplishment. We're back to commendations. I don't know. I think I have to knock off at least one star on my personal listening enjoyment scale, because, like, the book of love is LONG... and indeed occasionally boring. I maintain that most of its best material is on disc 1, though of course I'm biased because 1. That's the stuff I knew already, and 2. That's the stuff that came before I started wondering, "hey, wait a minute, how many more hours am I going to be at this for?" (But, like, I Don't Want To Get Over You is SO funny... A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off is a bop, and also funny... The Book of Love is gorgeous, truly...) Also, the primary vocalist's voice is... it works well with the vibe of this material, but it does get hard to take in large doses, and—as I and doubtlessly every single other person to ever review this album have previously expanded on—the whole album is a VERY large dose. But on the whole? It's really good stuff. I'm glad to have listened to the whole thing through within a short time frame at least once, and I'm looking forward to revisiting some of the new tracks from discs 2 and 3 as well as my old favorites from disc 1 going forward.
Pretty good
I paused doing this project for like three months because I really dreaded listening to a three hour album, especially from a band I don't particularly find interesting. Well, not every song is good, and some of the "songs" are just 30 second long vocal tracks. But as I got to the end, I found myself erasing and rewriting my entire review, which changed from "this is a very corny and bloated album from a very talented songwriter" to "this is truly something special, warts and all". Five stars for the twentyish songs that stuck out to me, three for the fiftyish that aren't really songs or just didn't, let's even it out to a four. Usually I rate these albums by proportion of songs I like (50% of songs = a 3/5, etc), but this one I found special enough that I'm breaking my own rule. I would love to own this album on vinyl if it wasn't $100 because it's six fucking LPs and also half the songs are just fine. But man, some truly incredible songs here. "No One Will Ever Love You" - wow!
I was surprised how many of these songs I enjoyed listening too
Крейзи концепт. Много хороших песен, разбавленных просто приятными. Лучшая песня - I Don't Want to Get Over You.
This was pretty good music but 3 hours is way too long! I made it through the first two CDs of the record and am quite pleased by it.
My first exposure to this record was The Book of Love, it would have had to have been during the series finale of Scrubs back in '09. I love that song. Its been covered and shows up in movies and shows all the time and kind of always pulls me in. Also, Papa Was a Rodeo is often covered and that song freakin rocks. This record was cool! Really ambitious. Where its good, it freakin slays. Its bangers. Where its not as good, its pretty much "meh." I don't think there was anything that I didn't like on this album. It feels like every 3 or 4 songs would be a banger and then everything in between was just kind of fun to hang out with. This album is also 3 hours long. I somehow listened to all of it.
Fun and some great tunes
Before I dive deep into this behemoth, let's get some background out of the way. The Magnetic Fields are a Boston-based indie pop group, primarily under the lead of poet/producer/multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt. The band started in a more lo-fi synth-pop lane until Stephin wanted to pivot into musical theatre and develop a revue. Taking inspiration from composers Stephen Sondheim and Charles Ives, Stephin set out to write a hundred songs centered around the concept of love. After realizing how daunting a task that would be, he settled on writing only 69 songs instead. So yeah, this album is as advertised on the tin - 69 songs about love, divided across three volumes of 23 songs each, totaling over three hours of music. I've seen enough people bring up this album on the r/1001AlbumsGenerator subreddit whenever they get it, almost as if it's a rite of passage. With that in mind, I took my time with this record, taking breaks between each volume to not overwhelm myself. I will commend Stephin, his bandmates, and the multiple session musicians for the sheer lyrical depth and stylistic variety across these three volumes. I felt genuinely engaged throughout the runtime as a variety of instruments and compositional choices were used to keep the listener on their toes. Songs tonally range from short punk bursts to more baroque passages, from longer country-folk ballads to electronic loops, and so forth. There is never a dull moment, as each track can be viewed as a different scene in an ongoing narrative of love, viewed from varying perspectives. Whether it's heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, perhaps the person is feeling cold feet, maybe the relationship is only halfway met, there could have been a breakup, or somebody is murdered in the pursuit of passion, or even someone choosing to live out in Washington, D.C., because that's where their baby is, there is no shortage of storytelling and camp on this record. I'm not gonna say every track was a banger. When you're pushing yourself to write 69 songs of varying styles, mostly centered around love, and in a relatively short time, they can't all be zingers. But more often than not, this album stayed entertaining, and even for the tracks I didn't fully gel with, I have to commend the Magnetic Fields and the session personnel for taking these sonic risks. Not to mention, the vocal performances throughout this record were overall great, particularly the juxtaposition between Stephin's captivating bass and Claudia Gonson's more energetic delivery. Again, I feel like I had a better time with this record because I gave myself a break between each volume, and that is probably the best recommendation to make. I get the pressure of listening to one album a day, as this generator website is tailored for. But taking the time to let this experience sink in was probably the best way I could have approached 69 Love Songs, and thus I can appreciate it.
69 Love Songs is absurd, sprawling, and brilliant. On paper, it’s too much, 69 tracks of genre-hopping madness, but Merritt’s wit, charm, and odd tenderness make it irresistible. One moment it’s camp, the next it’s heart breaking, and somehow it all works. I expected a chore, but thoroughly enjoyed it.
Main vocalist (Stephin Merritt I think) has a nice deep voice. There are several other vocalists mixed throughout. Musically the album is indie popish/British folk rock/country adjacent. I dig it. Songs range lyrically from more serious love songs and concepts to humorous. There are 69 tracks in this album so strap in. Having said that, none of the songs overstay their welcome - most tracks are under 3 minutes. Notable tracks include I Don’t Believe in the Sun, All My Little Words, A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off, I Don’t Want to Get Over You, I Think I Need A New Heart, The Book of Love, Grand Canyon, No One Will Ever Love You, World Love, Epitaph for My Heart, Asleep and Dreaming, The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure, I Can’t Touch You Anymore.
This album feels like eating an entire tray of different Costco samples. Even though they’re pretty simple, I love the vocals. Incredibly creative songs titles lmao. It’s actually insane to me how an album can be this long and I don’t get bored of it. Each song was really enjoyable and at no point was i waiting for this to be over, which is crazy for an almost three hour long album. Fav songs: I don’t want to get over you, sweet-lovin man, love in the shadows
This album is so fun! Each song is like a little journey. They’re also short enough that the bad songs end pretty quickly. Overall, I somehow managed to not be bored for the vast majority of the time, which is pretty impressive for a 3 hour album. Ultimately, there might be a 5/5 album buried amongst everything but it’s still very very fun. The first disc is probably the best. The instrumentation is varied and fun. The lyrics can be a little on the nose at times but what do you expect from something this long. The overall vibe is pretty campy, and that can get a little annoying sometimes (see experimental love, wi’ nae wee bairn ye’ll me beget). Standout tracks: I Don’t Believe in the Sun, The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, Love in the Shadows 4.5/5 deserves to be on this list
nice
Way too long but I dig it
Dope
Yea, it’s fucking long but it’s consistently Nice! I personally only need a couple tracks at a time. 4 stars
An event! Just unique and constantly engaging. Merritt's voice dead on to explicate the vagaries of the genre. Endlessly inventive lyrically and musically. How can you make a love song about it being like a chicken with its head cut off? The others contributions are equally appropriate. Just fun to parse and listen to the banjo. Blue? I could dress in black and read Camus. Or be a rabbit.