Reviews (page 4 of 8)
Oh, actually, the album is pretty nice. Little songs with catchy melodies in simple arrangements. I doubt it was really necessary to record a 3-hour album with them. Maybe I’ll even listen to it again. Probably not, though, because there’s plenty of other music that interests me more. 3/5
Props for the concept
A giant parody album. It's funny, and it certainly does a great job deconstructing love songs. The genre leaps keeps it from being boring, but it is just entirely too long. Even with most songs hovering around 2 minutes long, this is just obnoxiously long. Additionally, none of the songs are particularly memorable. I'm glad I heard it once, but it's unlikely that I would ever listen to this again. It was funny to see so many extremely high reviews of this album, but if you think about how many music critics want to be the smartest person in the room and tell everyone else that they just don't understand an album with bad singing and that they're just too much of a mouth-breather to be willing to sit through a three hour album, then you start to understand why there are so many positive reviews. The idea of this album is funny and the execution is even quite funny. I enjoyed a lot of it, but if the length and lack of hooks makes it so I never want to listen to it again, how can I say that it's good?
Songs are fine, nothing standout, but they weren’t bad. It is legitimately 69 songs long, almost three hours.
Ahh die is lekker rustgevend, moet wel zeggen dat ik ze niet allemaal heb geluisterd
Demasiadas canciones; hay que ser más modesto y escoger algunas. Curioso, pero fallido.
Nice.
It's never more than ok. But 3 fucking hours?! Luckily I was board and I had some bourbon.
Favorite Track: I Don't Want to Get Over You
I try to listen to each album on this list at least twice, which becomes a challenge with albums like this one, but I did it. As expected, there are great and not so great tunes over the course of three hours. This, of course, is the problem with a record like this. It is too damn long. An ambitious project to be sure, I just don’t think it works. As much as I liked some of the songs, I don’t think I’ll be returning to the album again.
Literally 69 songs, so it was a marathon to complete, but despite that, I didn't hate it. It gets a 3
I get it 100%… to make that many songs is really impressive. However I do think a lot of art benefits from being concise and only containing what needs to be there. But also the whole point of this project was to be a shit ton of songs. I’m gonna settle with a three
He has a pretty unique sound and I can appreciate what this is but toooooo damn long
interesting
"The music here is pretty good." "I know, and in such large portions!" It's a very impressive feat that ultimately does overstay its welcome for me. Plenty of gems throughout this. But too long to connect with as fully as I wanted to.
Indie pop, indie folk, synth-pop, chamber pop, art pop, experimental pop, alternative country, twee pop.
This is kind of a tough one to rate. First off, I actually really liked some of the songwriting here. Some of the lyrics and concepts are very well written and unique. The breadth of musical influence on this record is also very entertaining. I do feel like a quality producer would have cut this down into two really good albums and cut the album-worth of subpar material. Overall, because it’s hard to listen to 3 hours of music as a unified piece of art, I have to go with a 3.5/5 but round down.
I don't think you're actually supposed to listen to all of this, the whole album comes off as an ironic joke and by the time you're at Love is a Jazz song -done in the most ridiculous over the top caricature of jazz style - it should be blazingly obvious Magnetic Fields is just fucking with everyone.
will come back and update this eventually
Rock pop ABBA vibe
Phew! Made it. All i need to do is listen to it twice more and I'll be qualified to have an opinion on it (not going to happen) I enjoyed the challenge to be honest and you have to admire the sheer scale of the thing...that alone makes me think it's deserving of a place on the list. Some of the tracks were even good (I Think I Need A New Heart, Boa Constrictor, It's A Crime amongst others , some were poor approximations of stuff by other artists (John Grant, Belle and Sebastian, Tom Waits) and some were just show tunes.
Belle découverte, je connaissais pas! Un album trop long, aucune chance que j’écoute les 2h52! Mais le premier album était plein de surprise, messemble que ça se suivait pas? J’ai pas compris le style de l’artiste mais y’avait de bonnes chansons quand même! Note de 3 pour le manque de cohérence mais l’originalité de l’album Mes préférés; absolutely cuckoo, all my little word (avec le violoncelle à la fin, sorti de nul part mais cool),
Podría ser un disco genial, pero es DEMASIADO. 69 canciones es DEMASIADO. Casi tres horas de duración, es DEMASIADO. Me gustaron varias canciones, pero siento que los propios Magnetic Fields se dispararon solos en el pie haciendo un album de esta longitud. La verdad, aunque me gustó, terminé por no querer volverlos a escuchar nunca.
Album is enjoyable, but three hours? That is quite cumbersome for an album of the day. Not a producer, but this album would have been better off as multiple albums. The only problem with that is the album would not longer be 69.
This is insane. 3 hours of some of the most random music I’ve ever heard. I think I zoned out somewhere mid disc one so don’t ask me anything about it. (69 songs, 172 mins)
Wtf is dit voor een concept. Om te laten zien hoe goed je liefdesliedjes kan schrijven dan maar gewoon teringveel tegelijk uitbrengen. En stoppen op 69, haha seksgrapje wat ontzettend leuk zeg. Het is verleidelijk om deze plaat al te haten voordat je één noot gehoord hebt. Maar gelukkig heb ik het wel een kans gegeven en heb ik twee van de drie cd's uitgeluisterd. In vlagen realiseer wilde ik het afzetten of was ik juist weer hooked. Ergens in het begin van CD 2 zit een serie ijzersterke songs. Zeker waar hij een beetje klinkt als Phosphorescent of Midlake (toch twee zeroes indiefolk iconen) sla ik het ene na het andere nummer op. Maar dan even later (middenin I Shatter) wil ik hem toch maar al te graag weer afzetten. Eigenlijk komt het op het volgende neer: als de beste man niet zo'n idioot was geweest om perse 69 nummers op een album te zetten maar gewoon de 12 beste had gekozen, dan hadden we hier een prachtige indieplaar gehad. Maar hij vertikte het. 7/10 - vanwege de pareltjes die her en der op de platen staan Highlights Book of Love When My Boy Walks Down the Street Grand Canyon Long-Forgotten Fairytale
FFS. The length of this thing. I got to track 31. And it's nice. But man, the length!
Nice. Besides, I understand. This album is anything but conventional, so it would be unfair to judge it by conventional standards. It literally consists of 69 little songs about love. Musically speaking, it's like throwing buckets of slightly different shades of paint onto a canvas. You can hardly expect a Renaissance painting to emerge by chance, but as long as you view it as art, you will find little spots that you can appreciate....
I'd heard about this one before, but I was quietly intimidated by the 2 hours... gotta be honest about that. I like the general idea,an album of love songs exploring the many faces of it. I mean, come on, it's literally the feeling that gets explored most in music. But lyrically? Quietly surprising. I wasn't expecting it to be this good. Let's be real: holding 2 hours of anything is complicated. If I listen again, and I will,I'll divide it up, pay more attention piece by piece. Because it can get overwhelming all at once. This one needs another listen. In pieces. With focus and time. I Respect the ambition, surprised by the lyrics, overwhelmed by the length.
J'ai globalement bien aimé. Franchement, il mérite pas vraiment sa note de 2,85; tout l'album est plutôt bien produit, les mélodies restent en tête et l'album est littéralement ce à quoi tu t'attends donc les attentes sont à mon sens indéniablement respectées. Néanmoins, le problème principal quant à l'album, c'est vraiment le concept en lui même. L'idée de faire 69 sons pour faire 69 sons se ressent vraiment avec une energie recyclée et vraiment redondante vers la fin du projet, et puis c'est beaucoup trop long. En résumé, ça remplit bien les attentes mais en tant que projet je ne peux pas lui mettre autre chose que 3
Pros: - Emotional - Usually good instrumentals - Some lyricism scattered around Cons: - Too bloated - Some half-baked songs Rating (out of 10): 7/10
Not fun. Mid.
Listened to Disc 1. Not bad, not great, it's got decent lyrics but no way am I listening to another 2 discs of this. 2.5/5. Raising to 3.
Started strong, but many of these songs were somewhat forgettable. Props for taking on such a big project. Did not listen to the whole thing
There were some good songs. If they'd made a shorter album with the best songs it could have been great. I'd have preferred "14 Love Songs" without the joke title.
ascoltato non tutto ma quel poco fa capire che c’è potenziale
Ho sentito le prime due canzoni ma sembrava bello, voto falso
69/69 songs listened. I rate this album a 41,4/69 rating.
Love songs, breakup songs, stalker songs, this album has it all. If it was a poetry book I would like it more. I never want to listen to it again, but it wasn’t as horrible as legend has is.
Not yet managed to listen to all three hours, but I appreciated the concept and enjoyed listening
C'est impressionnant un album de 69 tounes. Mais pas autant impressionnant qu'un album de 35 minutes réparties sur 9 tounes excellentes. Il se cache sûrement un ep de quatre étoiles dans tout ça. 2.75 étoiles car je considère cette suggestion d'écoute comme un affront.
a very long listen. interesting...
Supongo que mi opinión (al menos de los que se han molestado en escucharlo entero) es que es un disco interesante con canciones bonitas, pero no termino de entender porqué sacar 69 de golpe. ¿No tienes criterio para elegir? ¿Eres tan bueno que tienes claro que todas merecen ser publicadas así de golpe? No sé y ya leeré para enterarme de esa historia si es que se sabe. La cuestión es que gracias a las listas de los más escuchado del disco puedes repasar lo que más le gusta a la gente y a partir de ahí tomar lo justo y lo mismo explorar de nuevo sus casi 3 horas. Me guardo The book of love, I don't want to get over you, All my little words.
6/10
Quase 3 horas de álbum, comecei as 16h40 e só acabo depois das 20h. Mesmo assim, é 3/5. Não há uma música que possa dizer que não gostei. Ouvem se todas bem, umas são melhores que outras. Mas, por favor, que não apareça outro álbum com mais de 60 músicas ou com 3 horas.
I did it! All 2 hours and 52 minutes. Geez this is tough to rate. The songs are generally short which was a good thing. There were lots of good bits but you throw 3 hours away and there's going to be something that's decent. Rounding up to a 3 because it has "the book of love" which resulted in the much better Peter Gabriel cover
Nice. I didn't get through all 69 songs, but sure feel loved afterwards.
Rv
It is as self-indulgent as marvelous. I would consider it an almost perfect album if it were a double album, but the listening experience does suffer from its long duration.
I made note of the songs that really grabbed me: ‘The Book Of Love’ ‘World Love’ ‘Long Forgotten Fairytale’ ‘Epitaph For My Heart’ ‘I’m Sorry For Your Love’ ‘The Death Of Ferdinand de Saussure’ ‘Yeah! Oh, Yeah!’ ‘Strange Eyes’ That’s only eight out of sixty-nine. ‘The Book Of Love’ is far and away the best song on the whole album and worth the price of admission alone. YMMV, but the rest of ‘69 Love Songs’ is largely (and somewhat unfortunately) a test of endurance rather than an enjoyable musical experience. It’s not without merit, and it should probably be praised for its ambition, but jeez it goes on and on. I admire what it’s trying to do far more than I enjoy actually sitting through it, which leaves me with very mixed feelings towards it overall.
An incredibly creative endeavor. Perhaps too long for me to really retain much of it. 6/10.
Kinda listened to it while I was half sleeping , which is appropriate
Too many!!
“A pretty girl is like a violent crime If you do it wrong you could do time But if you do it right it is sublime” A meaningful review of this is tricky almost entirely due to the vastness of the material and the breadth of the sound. It’s serious and quirky in equal measure but crucially is never taking itself too seriously nor is it ever childish or weird for weird’s sake. The whole record has a tremendous sense of humour (“A Pretty Girl Is Like” is absolutely hilarious). It is these moments of brevity that keep you going and, most importantly, interested through an utterly insane runtime. It’s impressive to be able to fill an album of 69 songs at all. The fact that I enjoyed so many of them is incredible. The ones I did not enjoy I am still glad I heard. Listening to “69 Love Songs” front to back is a mammoth task and not something I am likely to attempt again but I am grateful to have had the experience.
I hate to be critical about this, but it's too long. I think the concept is well executed, but at 3 hours of length it wears itself out.
God, this is just so long. I like the Magnetic Fields but have never listened to a full album of theirs, and this was a doozy of a place to start. 3 hours is so much time to find to sit and listen to music on a Monday. There's a real range of songs here, some good and some not. I would love to hear a tighter version of this with all the filler for the sake of filler cut out. About halfway through the first 10 songs or so I was like "this sounds so much like the Gothic Archie's, I wonder if the lead singer did that project too..." And then I googled it and not only did he do The Gothic Archie's but Daniel Handler plays the accordion on this album 😂 It's a small musical world out there!
All Filler, No Killer! Yesterday's album was too long at 70 minutes. So, the generator decides today I should get a THREE HOUR LONG ALBUM. In fairness, I truly admire the time, effort, and testicular fortitude it took to make this. Stephin challenged himself and went for it! And, he succeeded! There's a lot of very catchy songs on here. The sense of humor is infectious. The variety of styles, voices, and arrangements keep this from being a boring listen. It becomes a game of "What's behind the NEXT door." I suppose that's why it's on this list. It's an oddity that just needs to be experienced. In its entirety. From beginning to end. ONCE. It's no elephant in the room that the three hour run time is the album's greatest weakness. Recording every song that enters your head is something every songwriter needs to do. Get that sucker on tape! But then, go back and do some editing. Cull a few, combine some others. Develop ideas. Work on arrangements. Mold the beast into a sharp KILLER album. This could totally have been that. Instead, editing is left up to the listener. It's mixtape time again. Which, honestly does have its own joy. This is the sort of collection that ends up on a "Super Deluxe" Box Set. It has the feel of a collection of rarites and outtakes. The fun stuff usually released at the end of a band's career. Kudos to these guys. They decided to record the whole box set upfront. Themselves. Isn't that just the "Indie" way? ;)
Long as hell. This one was tough to listen to all of it and have a conclusive opinion on nearly 3 hours of music. I liked some, others felt like they were clear demos. Honestly will return just for the breadth and a couple of those just have the perfect combo of vocals and melody. I swear there’s like three songs on the first two discs that just have the same lame synth boops as it’s beat.
Listened to like half, some are good some are bad
Just way too long
I’m glad this ended the long term feud with Houmous & Chutney. It started when H&C released their album 30 Love Songs. The Magnetic Fields weren’t to be outdone and released 31 Love Songs. This went on for 6 long months of relentless album releases. 3.0 4/69 A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
Really fun, a lot of bit sized songs and not what I expected given the title
Interesting! Folk/rock kind of vibes. Rhyming “Dakota” and “iota” and “quota” was pretty clever.
Impressive. To be honnest I didn't go through the three albums but a good half of the singts and they are diverse, some rock, some jazzy, thet text are pretty good and original. I'll give a 3 for good effort.
I was surprisingly attracted to this album, though the absurd length did repel me.
Монструозный сборник, чтобы оценить нужно слушать и слушать. Впечатления смешанные, но в положительном ключе скорее.
Reminiscent of They might be giants.
This is quite a task to get through - almost 3 hours is a bit much. A very bloated album (or 3 albums really). I'll applaud that it's a hell of a bold move releasing all of these songs on one record. There were some songs throughout that I liked but the songs seemed to just merge into one after a while. Not enough variety for me to fully enjoy the whole thing. It was refreshing when they changed the vocalist now and again, I just wish it was more often as I found the main singer's voice starting to wear thin at times.
Quirky little album with a wide range of influences/sounds.
Whelp, this three-disc-length record gives listeners exactly what it says on the tin. The problem is that I don't know why The Magnetic Fields put this collection together for release. I am not familiar with this album or the band, and I plan to read about this album after reviewing it. I suspect they decided to record these tunes simply because they could. It appears that the band was going through a surge of creativity without a simultaneous surge in restraint. Though many of the songs feel like creative sketches, every single track is good in its own way. Some are quite unique and interesting, but with so many tracks to get through in a single day for the OAD, I couldn't stop to let any sink in, so they all kind of ran together. I'm at a loss as to how to best experience this collection. My impression is that being overwhelmed by the 69 songs is the point, not the individual songs. It's an interesting idea, but I had trouble connecting to the piece. I listened to each "disc" separately just to keep it manageable, but by the end of the third set of songs, I was annoyed and ready for the album to end, not because any of the songs were bad, but because I was simply exhausted. If The Magnetic Fields chose the 10-15 best tracks from 69 Love Songs, fleshed them out, and released them as a single disc, this could have easily been a record that I'd come back to. But as it is, the length of this experience proved to be just too much for me. Three stars.
Quite difficult to rate. It is a very interesting concept but maybe a bit too much after all.
Ever wonder what it’d be like if The National put out a three hour album of quirky pop indie love songs? Me neither. This is the answer to a question nobody asked.
Yeah, no. I love the form of repetition as a form of change - Groundhog Day, Run Lola Run, The Art of Fugue, looped guitar - but I didn't find any interest in the first 15 or so songs to keep up the experiment - which is actually the most interesting thing to me about this whole project we've taken on of speed listening to a thousand albums in a thousand days: I normally grow to love the music I love over repeated listenings. What happens when I force feed a thousand albums on one or two listens?
Truly never heard of this band. Interested to check this out. First couple tracks a bit slow for my taste. Not my vibe. I get it.
I know this album has always been lauded as extraordinary but I have hard time listening to it all the way through. It’s more talking than singing. And the instrumentation is spare. I just don’t get it.
Like it says on the tin: 69 love songs. Spans the spectrum of falling in love, being in love, and losing love, and anything that could fall in between. It felt like watching a play made up of disconnected scenes about different people, which I appreciated. The songs themselves are melodic enough to be listenable but simple enough to keep the writing and stories at the foreground. It’s a huge creative feat (and listening commitment) that I do plan on revisiting at least in part. A long, life-affirming, often funny record.
Kudos to anyone who made it through all three hours of this. I did not. After volume 1, I decided there were probably no surprises hiding around the corner. This seems to be a quality collection of pleasant songs. With its length, it would be great to put on as background music at a party. Other than that, there's not much to bring me back to it. Also, one of the singers sounds exactly like Bill Callahan.
Certainly ambitious and the musicianship is great but this is far too long to hold interest and you will get sick of his voice.
It's got some solid stuff on it, but I find the length to be a legitimate issue. I wouldn't call it "filler" because a lot of the lesser songs are still good, but this good have been a much better album by tightening it up. I assume the length is the idea and the point... it's just not a great idea.
too long
I finally got through all 69 songs!
Allt of langt. Nokkur góð lög þarna en mikið spólað.
Ágætt stöff en alltof mörg lög.
Somehow I’ve never gotten far into this album. It’s hard to imagine any band getting the runway from their label to put out an album this sprawling, but I don’t think there are many wasted moments. Clearly a band at the peak of their creative powers. The influence of “69 Love Songs” has enjoyed a strong run through the years, but most noticeably amongst the stomp clap hey bands of the 2010s (or as I like to call it, “Of Mumfords and Lumineers”).
Ei hirveesti innostanut kun katsoin että tänään kuunneltava levy on tripla ja kesto 2 tuntia 52 minuuttia... Kuuntelin teoksen läpi. Onneksi laulajalla on tumma ja syvä ääni ja se piti mielenkiinnon yllä. Tuskin tulee enää uudestaan kuunneltua. Hivenen liian tasapaksu mun makuuni
There's some good songs in here. Otherwise it's WAY too long. I admit, I didn't make it through the whole album because it got boring and the songs were all meshing together and nothing sounded good. Read the other reviews where others made it all the way through. 3 / 5 = If you take all the decent tracks and put them on one album, it would get a higher rating.
A gem
When I saw the title of this album, my first thought was "Dear God! I hope there aren't actually 69 songs!!" Sure enough . . .. I've mentioned in other reviews just how few albums need to be this long (about three hours!), and there is a ton of chaff in with the wheat here. But I have to admit that seems to be the point of this one. This is Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" writ large. The experiment seems to have been to try to write love songs in as wide a variety of genres and styles as possible. As the title indicates, that effort often turns into a kind of joke, but songs like "The Book of Love" and "Papa Was a Rodeo" and maybe half a dozen others make you think maybe we SHOULD fill the world with silly love songs. I mean, 8 out of 69 would be a pretty dismal batting average for a baseball player and still makes one question the need for the other 61 songs, but my guess would be that the 8-10 songs that speak to me would not necessarily be the same 8-10 songs that anyone else would mark as standouts. So maybe that's the point?
An interesting ambitious idea and had plenty of good songs, though the length didn't feel fully warranted
It’s definitely 69 songs.
Heard it before. And I'm not gonna listen to it in full again for my review because it's just way too long. I did relisten to more than half of it and it is a good album, you just need to pick your favourite songs and compose your own standard length album out of it. Pretty impressive to make an album that's so sonically cohesive while also not making every song sound identical 3/5
Too many songs for a single project. I didn’t have the time to listen to this
23 would've done.
Kid of dug. His voice is something I'd rather hear in small doses. It's cool, but less is more.
Honestly, just too many songs. There are some great tracks on here, and some also not so great tracks. While I get the idea, I think they would have benefitted from some editing, there is a good album in there, in just gets bogged down by the pure number of songs. Highlights: "I Think I Need a New Heart" and "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing"
Too long
Good
really impressive, but man, 3 hours is so long
Album #935 I was annoyed having to sit through a whopping 2h 53m of music just so they could achieve the joke of having 69 songs on the album, so I was waffling between giving this either a 2 or a 3. I certainly won't be listening to this one again, but as a one-off listen, there was some interesting stuff here. They cover a wide range of music styles, some hits, some misses. They probably had to force in some mediocre songs just to hit 69. Was it worth it?
3 Chapters, 3 hours, 3 Stars
this is divided into three volumes on wikipedia so im going to listen to it like that; one at a time with a palate cleanser between each volume. ill rate each one and average them for the overall score. volume one: this wasn't bad, there were a few standout songs. the quality of this gives me hope for the rest of the album. 4/5 volume two: less enjoyable than part one. if i hadnt taken a break i wouldve hated this but on its own its like a 3/5 volume three: i feel like this one was the least consistent. it had the highest highs but also had the lowest lows. 3/5 overall my only real complaint is the insane length. taken as three separate sections i dont love any of them but they werent awful either.
It's the longest studio album on this challenge (Ella's The Gershwin Songbook is longer but that's a compilation album), and as a busy worker I needed two days to listen the full album. The fact is that writing 69 songs for one album that are pretty consistently good and make a consistent album is not a small feet. I liked many of the songs on the album, and thankfully indie folk/rock is a genre that I like. I could easily compile a short version of this album with my 15 favorite songs from it. The thing is, however that it is simply too long - 3 hours is a lot and I don't enjoy long albums very much. So I will give it 3 stars - 4 stars for the songs I particularly enjoyed, 2 stars for the length and 3 for the overall experience.
I mean it’s too long Obviously And the quality control is all over the place But when it is good it is sublime. There are a treasure trove of great songs locked away in here. Luckiest Guy…, Busby Berkeley and Book of Love are fabulous Stephen Merrit’s voice is obviously limited (that’s being kind) but I recommend checking out the Peter Gabriel version of Book of Love to see the glory of its songwriting really unlocked
My first thought was being annoyed that I need to listen to an album with 69 songs even though I appreciate the humor in that. After a few songs though I was really enjoying it. I had never heard of The Magnetic Fields but this album just feels like true indie to me. I'm not totally sure what that means but when I think of the origins of indie music, this is what I hear in my head. It all sounds pretty similar but varied at the same time. Okay I bailed halfway through LP2. LP1 was pretty fun for the most part but it got way too old. There's too much good new music right now to spend 3 hours on this. I think if they would have only kept the solid tracks and removed all the filler getting them to 69 songs and only had 43 minutes of love songs, it would have been pretty good.
Bien trop fleuve et grandiloquent pour moi. Le concept est intéressant, mais rien que le premier album nous fait passer par 15 genres différents. Qui plus est, ça reste de l'indie pop assez classique
Lots of really great songs here, but the length is not justified so I gotta give a 3, unfortunately
Oh god it finally happened to me. So he set out to write 100 love songs but got stuck at 69. Honestly I wish he limited himself to a lower number. Just writing funny number amount of songs for the sake of it, is not good. The songs that do stand out could be condensed to a 4 or 5 star album. For now 3/5
There were songs that I liked but the length of the record makes it hard to weigh as a full project. Lyrics were generally just fine. I didn't love the lead male vocals. The melodies and musical ideas were mostly good to great.
69 Love Songs is a fascinating idea, but a mixed execution. There are truly great songs here—“The Book of Love” is an all-time favorite of mine—but they’re too few and far between, hidden under a lot of filler. I can’t help but wonder if the strongest tracks ever got the credit they deserved, or if they were overshadowed by the sheer sprawl of the album. Some people swear by the whole 69-song experiment, but to me it feels more like the gimmick drove the reputation than the music itself. Just my two cents.
Definitely some tracks I enjoyed. Definitely some that felt more low effort. But as a sum of its parts I think it's a good album
I'll admit it, I skimmed the first disc and decided that it was good enough. Almost three hours of songs about the grand concept of "Love"? Yeah, nobody has time for all that. "The Book of Love" is the hit, covered several times by artists who probably didn't listen to the whole collection either. The rest of the tunes are curious little notes.
point0.
Quite a lot going on.
Too much...
3.1 1x cool album, but 2h45m was a lot of love songs. nice cariety and nothing here i didn't like
Some good songs, but no one needs a 69 track album.
This is going to take awhile.
#692. Neat, I guess, but I'm not listening to this whole thing. 3/5: fine
Ambitious, but too much chaff.
Definitely bold! It’s taken me five days to listen to it because I didn’t have the wherewithal to sit for three hours. So I listened to it in 15 to 20 song bouts. It definitely made me chortle in parts and I admired the tonal mix and variety of genres. But valiant it may be at three hours, its whimsy does not wholly compensate. It sounded at times like Tge Divine Comedy but longer… I think I need a new heart and Busby Berkeley dreams were worth the listen but I’m not sure I’ll ever listen to this again in its entirety.
I liked this more than expected, there were plenty of lyrics that had me chuckling. But the premise dooms the project. Too many songs to take it seriously as a "listen in one sitting" album. After the Gershwin songbook, no less. So, kudos. Ambitious project.
Mid
Hey guys, maybe try and focus on like 9 songs and make them, how do I say this, good? This is an album of mostly songs fragments. On They Might Be Giants album Apollo 18 they made a bunch of song fragments (later compiled as the song Fingertips) so if you put the cd on shuffle it would feel like flipping through the radio in between full songs. The only difference between Fingertips and this album is the Giants did it as a throwaway and they are talented so the fragments end up being interesting. That isn’t to say the Magnetic fields aren’t talented. I honestly think they are, the main guy plays tons of instruments competently on here, and there are some genuinely good songs (Papa was a Rodeo in particular). The problem is 70% of this album is unnecessary to downright bad. Also I hate the singer, is he singing bad on purpose or is he just tone deaf? Make the girl the lead/only singer and this album would be way better.
This was interesting as a concept album, and had quite a few that I really enjoyed.
What an absolutely crazy project! It was pretty good throughout the whole 3 volumes. It's honestly just too overwhelming to rate after a single listen, but I'm not going listen through this again 😅
I didn't make it all the way through this album. It is "69 songs" after all. But it was quite fun. Funny, even. Very nostalgic-feeling.
They delivered what they promised
Uummmm
In theory this is a cool concept before an album, in action too many songs lol like it all kinda seem the same or even kinda like they were stretching for "love" songs but it was interesting albeit flawed album
Would Andres Serrano's Piss Christ be as effective, without the viewer knowing the context of the photograph? This album begs the same question - would these songs hold up if not within the framework of a 69 track compendium , variations on the theme of love? My short answer is that some would and some would not, but those that would not are propped up by the concept of the record and therefore are part of the greater tapestry. Some songs are knockouts, some are silly, some like worse Yo La Tengo, one sounds like it could be a Stevie Nicks demo? There is country, jazz, indie, and so on - most with a very New York theatrical cabaret vibe. Funny how a majority of these 'love' songs are about loss or love going wrong - but thats life! There will definitely be something on here for everyone to relate to and dig - rudimentary or frivolous as some entries can be. Papa Was A Rodeo is GOATed.
Var faktiskt 69 låtar på riktigt. Nice
I liked this album a lot more than I thought. 69 Love Songs contained a lot of music genres which really interested me as you tend to see albums today with one only or two at most. I’ve listened to the full first disc and most of the second one. The first disc really reminded me of Adventure Time. My complaint is the amount of quantity in this album and the lack of lyrical substance. It’s hard to connect to a song if it’s not really catchy due to the lack of lyrical substance. I also loved how the group swaps between members for who sings. This is an album that definitely feels it will grow on me over time. My favorite song so far is definitely All My Little Words.
3 hours is…a lot. Listened to the first 23 and got the picture well enough. Liked some stuff, didn’t like others, middle of the road it is
Some of my favourite lil love songs of all time but fucking hell, 3 hours
Interesting assortment of Songs
My first reaction was "wow" 69 tracks. A daunting task to review, but I'm doing this in the hope of finding music, that I have not heard before, that I will ultimately revisit time again . This seemed to fit that that bill! Alas, this will not happen with this album. Having completed listening to it, "69 Love songs" is all of the following things; audacious, ambitious, funny, quirky, wry, charming, dull, satirical, excellent, good, awful and for the most part Ok. Towards the end it was tiresome. It's an interesting concept but perhaps a concept taken too far? The vocals are human, and flawed in places, I like that. Musically it is diverse, though somewhat one paced and the album, at times, just drifted from one song into another. Some of the songs I was indifferent to, others were good, some very good, one was awful and there are a few excellent stand out tracks. My wife's comment was "What are you listen to? This is weird" and she's a fan of David Sylvian! Perhaps this album is a case of "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"? For me this is a 3⭐ album. Would I listen to this album again? No. Would I buy this album? No. Volume One 1 "Absolutely Cuckoo" - 3 2 "I Don't Believe in the Sun" - 3 3 "All My Little Words" I really liked this. This would get quantized to high heaven today to snap the vocals, but I don't care. - 5 4 "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off" - Funny and catchy. - 5 5 "Reno Dakota" - 3 6 "I Don't Want to Get Over You" - Neil Young'ish introduction. 4 7 "Come Back from San Francisco" - Lovely voice. - 4 8 "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" - 4 9 "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits" - 4 10 "The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be" - 2 11 "I Think I Need a New Heart" - 3 12 "The Book of Love" - I think Peter Gabriel covered this. - 3 13 "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long" - 3 14 "How Fucking Romantic" - 3 15 "The One You Really Love" - 3 16 "Punk Love" - 2 17 "Parades Go By" - 3 18 "Boa Constrictor" - 3 19 "A Pretty Girl Is Like..." - 3 20 "My Sentimental Melody" - 3 21 "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" - 3 22 "Sweet-Lovin' Man" - 4 23 "The Things We Did and Didn't Do" - 3 Volume Two 24 "Roses" - 3 25 "Love Is Like Jazz" - 2 26 "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" - 4 27 "Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old" - Great lyrics! - 5 28 "Very Funny" - 4 29 "Grand Canyon" - 3 30 "No One Will Ever Love You" - 3 31 "If You Don't Cry" - 3 32 "You're My Only Home" - 3 33 "(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy" - 3 34 "My Only Friend" - 3 35 "Promises of Eternity" - 3 36 "World Love" - 3 37 "Washington, D.C." - Naff. - 1 38 "Long-Forgotten Fairytale" - 3 39 "Kiss Me Like You Mean It" - 4 40 "Papa Was a Rodeo" - I really enjoyed this song. Liked the arrangement and lyrics. - 5 41 "Epitaph for My Heart" - 3 42 "Asleep and Dreaming" - 4 43 "The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing" - 3 44 "The Way You Say Good-Night" - 4 45 "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan" - 3 46 "I Shatter" - 3 Volume Three 47 "Underwear" - 4 48 "It's a Crime" - 3 49 "Busby Berkeley Dreams" - 4 50 "I'm Sorry I Love You" - 4 51 "Acoustic Guitar" - 4 52 "The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure" - 4 53 "Love in the Shadows" - 3 54 "Bitter Tears" - 3 55 "Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget" - 3 56 "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!" - 3 57 "Experimental Music Love" - 3 58 "Meaningless" - 3 59 "Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin" - It gets an extra star for comparing love to Gin. - 4 60 "Queen of the Savages" - 3 61 "Blue You" - This just might be the best song across the collection! - 5 62 "I Can't Touch You Anymore" - 3 63 "Two Kinds of People" - 3 64 "How to Say Goodbye" - 3 65 "The Night You Can't Remember" - 3 66 "For We Are the King of the Boudoir" - 3 67 "Strange Eyes" - 3 68 "Xylophone Track" - In the style of Lee Marvin! - 3 69 "Zebra" - 3 Total - 228 Average - 3.30
3/5
Wow...um, not sure how to begin on this one. Every song is completely different, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but is a bit jarring when you think that many albums do you have some sort of a theme or a flow to them and this one just does not! There are definitely moments of fun with clever, bouncy lyrics and melodies, and some catchy tunes that could easily become earworms, but I'm not certain that I will return to this monstrosity of an album very often.
very large body of work here. sounds like a slightly upbeat The Handsome Family on a good day.
first listen some of it is alright and man is it long
This is simply too many songs. Some of them I liked a lot but at a certain point your eyes just glaze over.
Boy, the combination of this and the Ella Fitzgerald record in the same week had be struggling to keep up, but I made it through! This one is also a really quality listen with plenty of interesting topics and a heavy dose of humor. The songs explore nearly every side of love, with ignorant bliss and crushing heartbreak working side-by-side. 6/10
A lot of good things, but the third part doesnt bring anyrhing new The concept is nice, but hard to execute
Weird album but sometimes weird is good. There aren't your normal type songs and I'm glad for that. A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off is just one of the great songs on this sprawling set.
3 uur.. Wel een goeie ervaring. Dat op verschillende nummers verschillende mensen zingen scheelt een hoop om te voorkomen dat het saai wordt. Zo hier en daar ook echt wel top nummers.
Álbum bem variado musicalmente. Truthear Zero: Red.
With an album with such a length and containing so many songs, it’s difficult to fully assess this recording. Indeed, it’s a bit of an ask to listen to it in one sitting. However, one thing that comes across is that there’s a wide variance in quality. Nothing particularly bad on the album, all the songs have a certain quality but some are definitely better than others.
Really good, impressive they made an album of 69 songs and i cant think of one that was bad
Never heard of them.There are a bunch of songs on here that I quite like, well, the melody at least, but in general I couldn't quite get into it. Maybe I'm just old. 69 songs is a great effort and It's by no means a bad album but just not for me.
fun!! sooo long...
I spent 968 albums dreading this based on all of the gripe I've read… and I like it. Starting with the cover, this album leaves nothing to the imagination. It's a concept album. About love songs. 69 songs long. This no-frills cover does what 80% of the albums on this list can't even come close to. No foggy paintings of lakes with boats on them, no poetic interpretation. 69 Love songs is different and original and when compared to the endless amounts of Britpop that shouldn't be hear, it's probably shorter. 3.5/5
Pleasant music to turn it on behind and not keeping notice of it. Put it on repeat and you will never get bored. But to listen it - it would be a huge deal. I did it now, once, and I will never do that again. Almost 3 hours!? No, thanks.
Could've cut it down to a dozen or so and been better.
As soon as I forgot 'album' and regarded this as a song cycle it made more sense.
It feels a bit like an academic exercise.
quantity over quality...?
I often describe these albums of having chill vibes, but this one especially has chill vibes, plus the shear quantity.
Hørte ikke alle 69.
Finfi, men litt for lang
Ein god langspillar.
Random thoughts: * 69, heh heh heh * Kidding aside, this is a real ambitious endeavor. He tried for 100 songs and decided he could only make it to 69. * This was daunting, seeing it was a 2 hour and 52 minute play time across 3 discs. This nearly broke me. That a lot of listening. * There is no one I can fully comprehend and adequately rate this album after a single listen. It is definitely one that might be worth revisiting. * I liked some of the more psychedelic sounding tracks which seemed to be more on disc 3. "Underwear" was a standout."Papa Was A Rodeo". There was another song that had the voice all distorted like Darth Vader. That was cool. * Anyway, this is a big bold album and is definitely the kind of album that should be on 1001. Maybe I'll drift back into this one again and give it the proper attention needed.
Didn’t wanna like this because of how long it was, but kinda liked it wasn’t able to listen to the whole thing
Very extense and varied.
Guy wrote 69 love songs while hanging out in bars in NYC in mid 90s. Indie pop. Lovely and folksy, very simple, pretty arrangements. Really cute.
Found some of these songs kinda charming…
THREE HOURS! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 3/5, and yes I did listen to every single song
I made it. It drug on at times, but it wasn’t the slough I thought it would be. Short songs kept me engaged.
These songs were funny lyrically. Decent album musically, another one to check off the list.
I did not make it through the whole album, but I like some of their stuff. Going with three.
Fav: The One You Really Love Notes: This one takes some getting used to. Clocking in at nearly 3 hours, it's hard to do that in one day as this exercise demands. Def could have been cut down but then you wouldn't have 69 songs I guess. Good bit of song writing nonetheless.
NGL, didn't have the time to give this one a thorough listen, but it's 69 songs on 3 discs, so, I think that's not really a surprise. There's some fun stuff on here, I love his voice. The song writing is fun, but it's a bit much of one thing, though I respect the concept and the dedication they obviously had to record 69 love songs on one album.
Perfect number of love songs
What a slog this was. This album absolutely bottlenecked my progress on this project. I’d listen to a chunk when I could, then when I came back I’d always jump in at the wrong spot, not realizing it until some lyrics felt vaguely familiar. Then I’d have to hunt around to find where I’d actually left off. This cycle repeated itself over and over across a couple of weeks, until the clouds finally parted today and I made it to the end. I can’t help but wonder about the impetus for this project. It honestly sounds like something dreamed up as a bar bet: "69 is a funny number; I bet I can write 69 love songs for my next album.” To be fair, the music itself isn’t bad at all. There’s every genre you could think of here (and even some you couldn't), and everything is sung and played well. Still, many of the songs reminded me of commercial jingles or show tunes--clever, busy, and eager to land a witty lyric or unexpected rhyme rather than dig into something more vulnerable. They feel more like exercises in craft than expressions of feeling. Smart, competent, and occasionally charming, but ultimately more head than heart.
mid
Oh wow, literally 69 songs. This might be the only album I do today. Lots of nice songs, but (like many others said), there's bound to be filler with so many songs. 3* The "Great Value Johnny Cash" description in someone else's review was pretty spot on. The book of love sounded familiar, but i didn't recognize any of the Wikipedia mentions.
Once I learned this wasn’t almost 3 hours of experimental electronica I breathed a sigh of relief. At least it was relatively pleasant.
There were actually 69 damn songs
This is...a lot. It's a sullen and melancholic mood for the most part, with drone vocals and some funky electronic music to complement. It's okay overall, but I won't seek this out unless I'm looking to fit in a particular scene. It's okay.
I rolled my eyes at the concept and the name of the album. However, I managed to get through the first two volumes and actually quite enjoyed it, the lyrics were humourous and there was good variety. Didn’t finish it so can’t be a 4 but I quite liked what I heard
Prolific album
Always thought this was a bit too gimmicky for its own good, though there's still a lot to like here. My favorites tend to be when they dip into country (e.g., "All My Little Words" or "The One You Really Love"), or the more Brill Building-ish songs (such as "Sweet Lovin' Man" or "When My Boy Walks Down the Street"). Luckily for me, both those types of songwriting get their own full albums, which I end up listening to a whole lot more. 3 hours is just too much! Listen to The Wayward Bus or Charm of the Highway Strip or something, don't listen to this one unless you're *really* dedicated.
A good thing, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing…
It’s definitely one of the most unique albums on the list, and I respect that, but at the same time it’s 3 hours (although it’s less boring than you would think) Also I kind of want to get the Gershwin Songbook tomorrow just because I think getting both 3 hour albums in a row would be really funny
I liked it a bit more than I thought I would. It’s certainly a lyrics album, I wish I had the ability to listen in as closely as I should. Way too long though, very tedious to get through.
3/5
So self-indulgent to take 15 bangers and dilute them with a bunch of also-rans. Nobody wants to listen to a fucking triple album. Stop it. 2.5
I liked the songwriting, the male singer's deep voice, and the general vibe, but I wasn't going to listen to 2 hours of this. I like it, but the lyrics require more attention than I can spare while working. Better for a long car drive.
A singular experience. This sounds like an alien or an AI model who’s been fed 69 random love songs and has tried to recreate 69 of its own, realizing the form but feeling distinctly soulless and unnerving in the actual content. But it seems that was the exact vibe they wanted? There’s a lot I could say about this, much of it bad, some of it good. There are some horrible songs, a few legitimately good ones, and a ton of experimental oddities swimming around in the difference. It’s difficult to evaluate that last group, because so many tracks feel more like goofy proofs-of-concept or stabs at a new genre rather than actual songs. The experience of listening to it is full of novelty, but at the end you’re going “what?” more than any feeling of admiration. So I have no desire to ever listen to this again, but I can’t keep myself from appreciating the extreme ambition as well as the bizarre humility of this album. It did exactly what it set out to do in an incredibly weird way, and so I can’t help but judge it to be a success. Disc 1’s best song: The Book of Love Disc 2’s best song: Papa Was a Rodeo Disc 3’s best song: I Can’t Touch You Anymore
Not gonna lie, I did not get through all of these. Some were pretty good - but come onn, 69 tracks?!
Oh this is literally 69 songs...not nice. I guess what I'll try to do is just type out which songs I like per disc and just grade it from there...here goes: Disc 1: All My Little Words, I Don't Want to Get Over You, I Think I Need A New Heart (heard this one before and it's in The Bear season 2 finale for anyone curious) Disc 2: When My Boy..., No One Will Ever Love You, Epitaph For A Heart Disc 3: Underwear, Bitter Tears Out of the 69 songs, I only really liked 8. The rest were pretty good though, but I did hit skip on at least 3 or 4 (like I Shatter) that were bad. I don't know what to do with this one other then give it a straight 3.
I spent the weekend on ketamine a f****** my way through all of these songs with my girlfriend at the cottage
Jaha. Det här är för svårt att bedöma på ett rättvisande sätt. Jag har bara lyssnat en gång. Delvis ofokuserat. Gillar den mörka rösten. Och en hel del låtar är bra (tex den första.... ) Men det hade varit mycket bättre om det kokades ner till ett vanligt album. Får ändå trea, för det är mycket som är bra. Men det drar ner att det är för mycket.
Väldigt svårbedömt, särskilt eftersom det inte blir aktuellt med mer än en genomlyssning. En del är hyfsat bra men en del är rätt uselt också. Lite övervägande åt det sämre hållet så det blir en svag trea.
From a songwriting perspective, it's a massive accomplishment to follow through on the concept of creating a new take on love for this many songs, and even more impressive to finish in a relatively short amount of time. I don't care for a lot of the songs, but some are very good. It's not a hot take, but The Book of Love is probably the best song, even if I prefer Peter Gabriel's version because that man is magic. I chose Nothing Matters When We're Dancing because I love the line: "Be we in Paris or in Lansing / Nothing matters when we're dancing".
That's a lot of songs, went down a rabbit hole to learn about them. Interesting
Getting 3 stars only due to the 'creativity'. It's interesting.... Wouldn't listen to this again, not for me.
Som med många längre album på den här listan, så ligger det säkert en perfekt platta gömd här. Som den nu är så har den en del filler men många bra stunder också
57/100.
Wow! Not sure what to think of this grandiose project. It had humor but didn’t really feel developed and fully maturated. It seemed more a collection of 69 poems. Most of these had clever wordplay and quirky twists but musically felt underdeveloped, more analogous to a poem with imagery and simple rhymes but musically had oversimplified repetitive melodies. I don’t think I’d ever want to listen to this album in its entirety again but the subjects and ‘songs’ are interesting and quirky enough that individually I wouldn’t mind hearing them again. Interestingly most of these songs are not love songs but more unloved songs. I’m not convinced based on these songs that the singer ever has been in love but these feel like a bunch of painful separations without deeper love and passion.
Reno Dakota was my favorite song. I listened to the first disc and it was ok overall. But I’m not going to listen to three hours of this band.
My second time listening to this monstrosity. It would have really pissed me off if it was a work day today, but thankfully I was travelling cross-US so I had time to kill with this rather extensive record keeping me company. It’s good music, a bit too indie for my liking, but nothing spectacular and of course two hours longer than it needs to be. Time Enough For Rocking When We’re Old was my favourite, it reminded me of Crash Test Dummies.
Too good but too long
Sehr unterschiedliche Songs. Allein die Masse von 69 Songs ist erschlagend. Vielleicht irgendwann nochmal komplett hören. 3/5
Meh
There's a certain brilliance to this album. Also a certain ridiculousness. I really enjoyed some of it, and the parts that didn't do it so much for me at least came in shorts spurts. I probably won't ever listen to this start-to-finish again, but there will certainly be songs that stay with me.
This has some great moments - I already loved Yeah Oh Yeah and the Book of Love especially - some of it washes over me. Some of it is almost purposefully annoying/kitsch, like Zebra or the boudoir/medieval track towards the end. I think it needs repeat listens for more songs to reveal themselves to me. All My Little Words, Promises of Eternity, Papa Was a Rodeo all have promise in this regard. But it's so long!
So, there are just way too many songs on here to listen to in one day, unless it was my job to do so. I listened to about a dozen and then quit because even though I am retired, I do still have a life. Anyway, for the most part I did enjoy what I heard, although Stephin Merritt’s voice wasn’t my favorite, especially when at times he seems to have a really loose relationship with the concept of pitch. I guess I will give this one a three based on my limited sampling.
This was interesting, but im not going to listen to 3 hours it
Favorite Track: Absolutely Cuckoo
Really long, could be decent, could be gay. Overall was alright
Hahahahahahahahahahahahagagagagagagagahagahahahaha
It's fun, too long, witty, unevenly sung, heartfelt, and too damn long. It's the weirdest thing, a three-star five-star album
The songs are fine but this was a slog to get through
En su generalidad es muy bueno. Notable calidad y muy pragmático, abarcativo de muchos géneros. Al ser tan largo también tiene mucho relleno que sobra, el 3er disco ya está prácticamente de más (o quizás me cansé).
some are gems, others completely forgettable favorite track: no one will ever love you
Some good songs watered down with a lot of meh.
This album has 69 tracks and is 2 hr 45 min. Wow. I did get through it all, but only once. I was familiar with a few songs, mostly because Spotify chose to plug them (or maybe KEXP did?): "Absolutely Cuckoo", "All My Little Words", "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side". The vocals can sometimes be a little too drawl'y for my taste, but the melodies are ok.
This ultimately suffers under the weight of its own conceit. If it had been, I don't know, even 39 love songs, it would have easily been a 4 or 5. But there's plenty that varies from filler to bad that the great songs (I Think I Need a New Heart, I Don't Want to Get Over You, Papa Was a Rodeo - and so many others) get totally drowned out.
a lot of interesting stuff here that I enjoyed! Just not enough to justify 3 hours long haha It's too bad this wasn't edited a bit more.
A mixed bag of tracks here. Some I enjoyed. Some I passed on. A lot of humour, though which made me smile!
Most of these songs are good. Just depends on who sings them.
I like the idea, the idea is fun and i think almost all songs are like a good 3. I listened to disk 1 and it’s good background music. Nothing reeally exceptional, but then again this is not about that. It really captures the generic lovesong genre.
Inte alls tokigt. Det som är tokigt är att den är för lång. Hade det varit 20 låtar så kanske det blivit en fyra eller femma.
Okay I only listened to the first 9 songs which is why I will give this a neutral rating. I actually did not hate it as much as I thought it would, but I will not rate any higher because the premise of this album is so ridiculous I cannot be bothered to listen to any more than what I did.
I didn't dislike this enough to skip any tracks, but I also didn't like it enough to particularly enjoy it. I got through the entire album though, so there's that I guess.
WAY TOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!
Delightfully weird enough to keep me interested for most of the absurd running time. I likely will never listen to this again, but for a somewhat harebrained gimmick I’d say they pulled it off.
Quirky mix of genres. Varied instrumentation about love in all forms. I'm never going to listen to this again.
Oof. The strength of this triple album is also it's weakness: variety. If I could select the songs, I could probably make a single 4* album. But there were also a lot of 2* songs. In the end, there's just too much stuff I don't enjoy to rank this any higher than 3*.
Hideous
Some gems tucked in between some strange and mediocre songs
Not horrible
Love song indie rock from the 90s. I didn't listen to the entire 69 songs but I enjoyed what I listened to. Standouts: Absolutely Cuckoo, A Chicken With It's Head Cut Off and I Think I Need A New Heart.
Enjoying it for the nostalgia factor, but goodness gracious what a collection of wholly unpleasant singing voices.
It's damn long, but it's nice
1st song-its mid dont like it it sound lame and idk what to say this one i rate on 1/10 2nd song- i really like it but i rate like 8/10 3rd song-
I don't know who had the more daunting task, Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields for writing and recording 69 songs or me, listening to the whole thing in one sitting. This three volume concept album set is an enormous project that is hard to believe was actually released, but for the less masochistic fan was also released as three separate volumes. I think of prolific artists, such as Ryan Adams who earlier this year (Jan. 1, 2024) released five albums in one day and their need to record pretty much everything they write. I didn't have the patience to actually focus too hard on each song, but as a whole this is the classic example of "throwing it against the wall and see what sticks" approach. There are so many songs and not just short ditties under a minute (yes, there are some), as most are around the 2-3 minute length with two at 5 minutes, so it definitely wasn't a brisk listen. Though many songs sounded like lo-fi demos or felt incomplete, there are some really good developed songs on here and the range of styles and instrumentation is varied enough to not become too boring. The reality is this is a self-indulgent project that is hit and miss and there's no doubt, quality is sacrificed for quantity. If you're patient, there are some gems in here, but who can tell when it all becomes a blur after awhile. This could have been a solid album edited down to one volume, as no one should have to listen to 3 hours of a mixed bag of ideas.
69
Fine but no I did not listen to all 69 ffs.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to -- there's a wide range of genres, and the lyrics are clever. But I'm not sure we need three hours worth. Had it been a single album, it would have merited four stars.
Known about the album/project for a while but had never listened to the whole thing, so thanks for that, generator. Figured it would be a 4-5 for me, but nope. Many songs I love and I dig the concept of producing so many songs around the vagaries of love, but too much felt beyond filler. 33 and I might coulda five-starred and listened regularly. As it stands, probably not. Will just try to remember and cherry pick the jewels.
about 59 songs too many
I enjoyed half of this album. The rest was alright with a few really bad ones thrown in This album should have been way shorter than it was though. Felt like a chore chipping away! 3 ⭐️
A cool concept, and I like the sound, but it does run together as you love through it. Still, generally enjoyable.
Campy and interesting... for about twenty of the 69 songs. Then it gets old quickly.
Uhhh, a bit on the long side. The songs are mostly pretty cool and well written, but I would much prefer an album of 12 of the best songs. Nearly 70 and the good ones just get lost with all of the ones that slid of the wall.
TLDR. No, actually, this album is fine, if not a little sappy.
Whimsical, at times brooding, folk pop/rock
This was tough to score due to the number of songs and length of this album. I did make a 2 times through and thought who in the world is crazy enough to do something like this? Then I started to think about love and the crazy things love makes us do. I believe in Love. I believe in the power of Love. I have to be careful because I could spend the next 3 days writing about the love I have for my wife. How every day I feel it grows stronger every single day and we've been married for almost 30 years. I hope that some day everyone can experience the feelings of love you just ache to be with that person. You can't wait to see that person after a day at work. Can't wait for the next great experience, next great concert, just the next time you look at each other, smile and just know how happy you are that person is part of your life. Hopefully for the rest of your life. God, it feels wonderful. I am a very lucky person to have my Mindy. So yeah, I can see how someone would write and record 69 love songs. Now the question is, was it good? Well to this listener, not so much. But if love inspired these guys to write 69 songs, love on people. Love on! Back to album, Papa Was a Rodeo was my favorite. Loved the opening line, "I like your twisted point of view, Mike!" Kind of ironic, don't you think? 3 for me. If you thought my rambling above was all over, you really don't want to hear the reasons for my score.
3 Well, this album certainly delivers what it promises in the title. Fortunately, I quite enjoyed its sound - or sounds, I should probably say. There’s a lot of unique, clever, and diverse songwriting going on that seems to touch upon a multitude of genres, yet all are interconnected under the common theme of love and share a distinct sort of indie flair. I also really dug the dude’s voice as well - its deepness pairs nicely with the songs, and while a touch imperfect, I thought that added to the overall indie charm of the album. Though, the other featured singers were definitely welcome additions that helped keep things fresh. However, no matter how you want to slice this album, it is 69 songs in 3 hours. I don’t care who you are, that kind of quantity quickly turns even the most enjoyable records into chores. I don’t know if they were just going for 69 because of the meme, but there’s absolutely no reason this couldn’t have been condensed down into like an hour-long album. There are some genuinely good songs here, but there’s also a lot of filler, and of that, there’s a lot that just kind of feel like half-baked ideas. Those, combined with the runtime, really seems to weaken the experience as a whole, which is a shame because I really feel like there is potential for greatness here buried somewhere. I respect the ambition, but imo albums shouldn’t be padded just because you have some extra material lying around - I mean, not even The Beatles could pull off a full double album without having to add a lot of BS. Quality over quantity always. I don’t have the time or energy to dive into the individual songs here, so instead, I’ll just list out my favorites: All My Little Words The Book of Love (better than Peter Gabriel’s cover) When My Boy Walks Down the Street Papa Was a Rodeo (great country tune) Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
Phew that was a long one. It took awhile, but it started to grow on me. Certainly sets a mood.
Exhausting but can’t say it wasn’t rewarding in some aspects. Some of these songs aren’t great, but honestly, a lot are. And they’re truly spread throughout the album. You’ll get a length of okay songs and then one will just give you a punch to the gut with its lyrics and illusions and hook and chorus. I love a bass voice in pop music. Liked the songs where he sang the most. It’s hard to say this is “worth it,” but I’m glad I finally listened to all of it. I could probably make a twenty song playlist of absolutely beautiful songs from this and it’d be five stars. But as it is, a strong three. What an oddity!
Kept it more interesting than I thought they would be able to
The One You Really Love // No One Will Ever Love You // Papa Was a Rodeo // Asleep and Dreaming // Underwear // Busby Berkeley Dreams //
13 or so would've been fine. I'd give a higher rating to an abridged version.
Bcp trop long. Pas pire tho.
tl;dl for one day lol
I found some of this entertaining, some good lyrics going on. But I only listened to about 10 songs before it started getting on my nerves
3.5/5. Struggling to decide whether I think it’s an ambitious display of talent or a silly gimmick. Its scope is tantalizing but there’s so much damn filler, it’s essentially a triple album.
Somewhere in this album is probably a 5* album. However there's just too much fluff to ever take it seriously
Oh my god, I did it. I finished this album on the very day it was assigned. Okay. So it's not terrible, but I heard 69 songs and zero reasons for it to be on this list. It's a gimmick album. If a painter said "I'm gonna do 69 paintings in two days" and they were all just two or three swipes with a roller brush, would it be celebrated? Probably, actually, the art world is weird. Some of the songs were good, but never fleshed out enough. And none of them were particularly catchy. One or two might've made it on a playlist of mine, but I'll never go back and try to figure out which ones. Anyway, good for us all, for slogging through. I really wish I had liked it more.
Fucking he’ll this was a slog! It’s been on my pending list since July 24 so finally got round to it thanks to a long train journey. So what can I say about 69 songs about love? Some songs, some skits, some Leonard Cohen vocals, some banjo, some synth pop, some velvet underground, some low fi indie… some good… some forgettable… for me it’s an album famous for the concept rather than the execution. A tiring 3/5
Unnecessary. Like, why?!?? I’ll say it is impressive that someone can assemble 69 songs and a majority of them are entirely pleasant. You might get an occasional smile from an unexpected lyric, but there’s nothing that you are rushing to anyone with “You gotta HEAR THIS!!!” And there are some definite clunkers (love is like jazz, Washington DC, kiss me like you mean it, I shatter, kings, strange eyes, zebra). But overall, the number of decent songs gives it a pass in my book… one of the more difficult trials clocking in at nearly 3 hours.
Whew, that's a lot of love songs! It's a lot and all over the place but none of the tracks are really bad. I didn't catch anything really great either. Maybe something would grow on me on the 2nd or 3rd listen, but I'm not really going to invest the time to find out now. A ten-song edit of this collection would be nice to have.
Such an ambitious album - lots of fun songs but also incredibly silly ones. I love the range and the different styles - it's not something I could put in regular rotation but its worth a couple of listens to at least.
3.5
the concept is nice and I have affection for this album from my youth but it is extremely long and can be a bit tedious. This thing basically singlehandedly got me four albums behind on our listening journey so that was also extremely annoying
Ah yes, one of the infamously long ones. As soon as the first track started playing I thought "Oh no, oh hell." Thankfully, not every song had the same feeling as that first one or I would have lost it. Truthfully though this was so long I was not really able to give it a good critical listen. It seemed like there was some good variety, and I really didn't hate it as background music. I think there are a few songs I did really like maybe? I know there were definitely a few I hated. A second listen at some point might be able to help me hone in on that more. It seemed like a lot of it was kind of playful, which seems right to me for an album called 69 Love Songs. I fully did not realize they did the original version of The Book of Love. I've only ever heard the Neil Young version. That's definitely a great son though. My final thought is I think some people are a bit over dramatic about this album. Yeah it's unnecessarily long but is it actually THAT horrible to listen to? I suppose if the various singers voices aren't your thing I could see it but from some of the comments I have read I thought it might be WAY worse than it actually was.
Cool idea. It didn't hook me, and I'm pretty certain the banjo in the first few songs was the final straw. If I had absolutely nothing to do and I was in a comfy room with just this album, I'd take that journey. Until that day comes, this will be one of 1000 albums.
Oof. A pretty outrageous entry in this collection, given that it's asking for 3 hours of your life on what's likely an unknown quantity for most listeners (and while I've actually heard parts of this album before, I had the added disadvantage of feeling pressed for time trying to catch up with missed albums from traveling, but I really did listen to it all (really!)). Regardless, while there's a pretty understandable oversaturation trying to listen to this album in a single stretch, I'm still really impressed at the range of styles and love-song-themes in this album, and enjoyed most of them more than I expected. I'm kind of glad, though, that Stephin Merritt never pursued his original concept of staging the album as a theatrical revue, and find it a bit hard to imagine being one of the few people who attended their two-night performances of all 69 love songs. I feel like this album is best appreciated in small bites, maybe as part of a massive shuffle-play of many albums. And I'm also really impressed that this was created in 1999, as it anticipated the sort of album that would be perfect to be made and listened to during COVID.... The ones I liked more than others (in album order): "All my little words", "Reno Dakota", "Come back from San Francisco", "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side", "Let's Pretend we're bunny rabbits", "The Book of Love" (especially for its Peter Gabriel connection), "Nothing matters when we're dancing", "Love is like Jazz" (not perfect, but I liked the variety there), "No One will ever love you", "Promises of Eternity", "Long-Forgotten Fairytale", "Papa was a Rodeo", "I Shatter" (a very Philip-Glass/Kraftwerk-inspired love song), "I'm sorry I love you", "Acoustic Guitar", "Love is Like a Bottle of Gin", "Zebra"
Is it over yet?... Overall I didn't mind it but like many other listeners I found it a test of endurance. 25 years since it's release and I had never given it a listen and now I realise why I avoided this album. Unquestionably genius in some parts, what it does lack is Stephin Merritt having the ability to take a step back do decide to tidy up a song or two. In a way this is the musical equivalent of the book, Infinite Jest File under "self indulgent indie" right next to Illinoise
Too many songs! But I did have a fee favorites - they weren’t too long, but collectively it was very long.
хмммм осмелюсь ли я сказат...... шесят девят???????? Найййййссссссссссс )))))))))))))) так, погодите, вы там это, лопнули? Ну типа слушается ок, но там РЕАЛЬНО 69 песен на альбоме. Они неплохие, раз на раз, но так много я не готов слушать. Ну это альбом песен про любоу. Любоу мы знаем. круто.
I had an ex that really liked this band. I thought album was going pretty good but then it kept going and going and going. They needed to edit that track list a bit more and it would have been a 4.
One of the songs on this album is "Fido Your Leash Is Too Long". Well, Magnetic Fields, this album is too long. Good, but too long.
Although conceptually great and well carried out, it comes across as somewhat self-indulgent at a certain point without quite enough variations lyrically and musically to sustain it overall. The sheer number of songs and the variety are impressive and thematically it works, but it could have been more interesting.
Definitely has some good songs. Also, at first I thought that it wasn't that hard to sit through as it works well in the background, but at disc 3 I lost that feeling a bit... The singer has a great low voice
I get not looking twee but I don't get all the negative reviews from people who never listened to it. With a list this dense, you're going to get overly ambitious twee albums that are more concept than content. I've listened to this a few times in my life and it is a slog to get through. There's a few songs I actually like and listen to on their own but this album, I feel, is mostly remembered for it's length. Had this been just a 45 minute album called love songs, it would've vanished into the twee ether. It's not all that bad, just mostly unmemorable songs.
Too long
consistently good, but i definitely won't be coming back to this
In a 3 hour album there will no doubt be some good tracks worth remembering, but the rest landed without sticking.
Quite a fun experiment. Listened to this throughout the day at work and was never tearing my hair out which is an achievement for an almost three hour album I had no prior investment in. I'd say about 6 or 7 of the tracks really stood out to me - not the best hit rate but most I had no issue with, only a few clunkers. I don't think I'll be running this thing often but will definitely come back to those few tracks, and I think the concept is quite fun. Three and a half. Fave track: Papa Was a Rodeo
This feels like XTC would have been if instead of the Beatles the band worshipped more at the altar of Leonard Cohen or the Pogues. 1 album of this would be good to listen to at a time. 3 albums' worth? All at once? That's asking a lot. By the 3rd disc I had pretty much tuned out and it had started to sound very dreary. I knew the Book of Love with Merritt's, but I did not connect that it was on this. Nice to hear the original version. I would have liked these more if I listened to each disk separately. Release them as separate volumes, maybe. It's just way too much in one sitting. Top tracks: "The Book Of Love," "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing," "The Things We Did And Didn't Do," "You're My Only Home"
Feels a little pretentious to put out a 3-disc album just because the lead (Stephin Merritt) thinks he is a good writer. They could've stopped after disc one, which wasn't bad - some bad moments (Punk Love) but also some good moments (A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off). Disc two got off to a terrible start (Love is Like Jazz at song two - what was that?) but it had some good moments (When My Boy Walks Down the Street, Papa Was a Rodeo). Disc three was more of the same. I most preferred when their pianist/drummer Claudia Gonson sung (Acoustic Guitar was a particularly notable vocal performance by her). Shirley Simms was also great on Come Back From San Francisco. Not that Merritt's vocals are bad - sort of a cross between Nick Cave and Matt Berninger (The National). Sometimes it worked really well (I Don't Believe in the Sun, The Book of Love, The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure) and sometimes it didn't (Promises of Eternity). In the end, did I need 3 discs and 69 songs? Probably not, but it wasn't the worst 3 hour experience I've ever had.
To be fair, it is really hard to grade this without multiple listens. this is an eclectic and diverse group of songs and it is long......really long. That being said, it is mostly enjoyable so I would put this between 3-4 stars. 3 for length and the songs I don't like and 4 for the musicianship and the songs I do like. I plan to revisit this several more times but on first listen the song that stands out the most to me is, "No One Will Ever Love You".
Some real quality in there, but some dross as well. The edited version would be 👌🏻
It took me about a month to listen to. In small chunks it was fine. Individually the tracks can be great and there are some stand out tracks. But it was WAAAAAAYY TOOO LOOONG. I guess the finish helped them get attention, and considering that it was about 4 albums long the quality is remarkable. But I just didn't want to listen to 4 albums of this stuff back to back. 4 stars with one removed because of the length.
Some great songs, but far far too long
That’s a lot of love songs. Some are pretty clever.
yoshi's island
I like the Magnetic Fields, but I’m more a fan of their synth stuff. And 69 songs? Ehhh…
I love the variety of this album. Good listening.
Ok
so long! some cool weird shit in there
Such a hard album to rate. Because it could've been a really good to great album. Seriously, there's at least one 5 star album on here. Catchy songs in tons of different styles, all about one topic, and with a good use of guests vocalists. Lots of good stuff here. But for the love of god, learn to edit. A single album, less than an hour, would've been perfect. There are that many good songs. But there is also way too many songs that aren't good and the entire experience becomes tedious. It's pure self-indulgence to think that you have enough to say to fill out a triple album (and each one of those 3 discs are long.) 3 stars. Average out the good and the bad.
I'm going to give this a 2.5 rounded up to 3... I don't hate it, but it definitely seems like quantity over quality. It's impressive from that aspect. But from an album I need to listen to perspective? I don't know... I'm just more of a fan of a 35-45 minute album, generally. I think a big part of this kind of thing, is the more time you spend with it, the more it grows on you. So for a 3 hour album, in order to finish it, you have to spend a lot of time with it.
I liked the eclecticness and ambition but this was just too long to get a grip of. I liked what I heard though
Hard to score, because its obviously not meant to be listened to all the way through. And i think i respect it enough for its commitment to the bit. Not all songs are killer but some are and thats an achievement.
2.5 stars. Interesting conceptually, but at nearly 3 hours long it's lot to sit through. Lyrically clever at times as it's a take on love songs, not really love songs themselves. "I Don't Want to Get Over You", "The Book of Love", "Sweet-Lovin' Man" were the standouts.
Good but super long