69 Love Songs

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 really didn’t see this coming. It’s basically 69 love songs played as jokes, with super simple lines like “The day is beautiful and so are you, my car is ugly but I’m ugly too… but I got wheels.” I smiled a few times, sure, but the whole thing feels too long, and it’s not just a feeling, it is damn long. Also, the constant second-degree mood, in the lyrics and the light, almost toy-like music, makes it hard to me to take this album seriously. The title “69” and the constant nods to alcoholism say everything about how seriously this project takes itself. Funny, but nowhere near what I expect from this list.

I was surprisingly attracted to this album, though the absurd length did repel me.

Interesting album - hints of the Beatles and 70's folk rock.

2.5 I guess. If it wasn't so long. I wasn't mad at it, but the genre is not enough for me to listen to it for just shy of 3 hours.

Some good songs but feels a little detached in a hipstery way.

Монструозный сборник, чтобы оценить нужно слушать и слушать. Впечатления смешанные, но в положительном ключе скорее.

Worst 69 I’ve been involved in

Approximately 60 too many

Annoying for this to be on the list, it’s not really an album. Some of the songs have SOLID production and songwriting, but then the next four tracks are an affront to the senses. Would have loved an album of like the ten best songs.

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

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.

Okay, I made it through 46 songs and I’m calling it. This is a very ambitious project but ultimately it is just too long for a one day session. I do think there is a lot of musical talent on display, obviously the musicians involved can sing/play anything and come up with quick ideas and rhymes. If only YouTube had been around this would have made a really great “making of“ series. I feel like they were writing and recording 10-15 of these songs per day in the studio. There are a few cute little songs and I get They Might Be Giants vibes crossed with Barenaked Ladies. In the end, there’s too much ukulele and it feels like a Portlandia sketch or a spoof of an NPR music show brought to life. Side note: “Love Is Like Jazz” is an actual crime, and may be the worst song I have ever heard. Did I need to listen to this before I die? Absolutely not.

I have achieved the highest level of musical endurance by listening to all 69 songs on this album. I hope my medal of distinction comes in the mail soon. Would I listen to again? (shhh....don't tell anyone, but I didn't actually finish all 69 songs. I cheated and skipped to the end)

Quirky little album with a wide range of influences/sounds.

"What do we want?" "QUALITY" "What do we get?" "QUANTITY!" Imagine being so in love with the smell of your own farts that a dumb joke becomes a 2h 45m behemoth. There's a 4 star record somewhere in here, you daft bastards.

Herranjumala, 69 kappaletta ja melkein 3h pituutta. Tää tulee kyllä nyt kuunneltua osissa. Iso osa kappaleista tuntuu olevan joko kantria tai elektronista indie rokkia. Kantri biiseissä kiva folkki viba banjon ja viulun kera. Mitenkähän tän nyt sit arvottais. Toisaalta aika saavutus että pystyy tekemään näin pitkän levyn missä kummiskin suurin osa kappaleista on hyviä. Toki kun on näin monta kappaletta väkisinkin on kappaleita mitkä vähän muistuttaa toisiaan. Mutta oliko tän pakko olla näin pitkä, oisko pitänyt ottaa ne parhaat kappaleet, pidentää niitä ja karsia levyn pituudesta 2 tuntia? Aivan järjettömästä ylipituudesa annan 2 tähteä vaikka kappaleiden yleinen laatu oliskin ollut 3 tähden arvoinen. Lisäksi yksittäiset kappaleet ei loistaneet. Parhaat: Blue You, Papa Was A Rodeo

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.

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.

I get how this album could be a big deal for a lot of indie heads and hipsters. But for the rest of us this feels bloated. Only a few bands can pull off a triple album and for the most part only the die hard fans love it.

I’m sorry, I’m just not going to listen to a 3 hour album. I’m sure it’s fine though

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?

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".

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.

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.

God this was insufferable. "Stephin Merritt was sitting in a gay piano bar in Manhattan, listening to the pianist's interpretations of Stephen Sondheim songs, when he decided he ought to get into theatre music because he felt he had an aptitude for it" - Wikipedia The only thing Stephin has an aptitude for is pissing me off. What a egocentric thing to do, listening to someone else singing love songs, and think 'Oh I could do that! Let me write 69 of them and put them on an album'. What a gimmicky way to get on this list, and so undeserving of it. It especially pisses me off that he probably thinks his album is good because its on 1001 albums to listen to before you die. This should be on the a list called 1001 albums that make you want to die. The only reason I finished listening to this is for the completionist inside me. Also 69? Really?! Are you 12 Stephin? 1/10

A good album, I liked Absolutely Cuckoo the most.

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.

OMG there are actually 69 songs on this album. What is the actual...?! I don't have the attention span for 3 hours of mid-music. This dude's voice is something, and it isn't something good. They clearly have some musical skill, but I don't want to have to wade through all of this to find a gem or two. This is too self-indulgent. Certainly not worth a second listen. Learn to edit.

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.

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.

Long and repetative

I only made it halfway through, but to be fair it was a LONG album. I generally liked the sound but the songs felt repetitive after a while.

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.

# Playlist Track - The Book of Love # Notes - I almost gave this an extra star for the ambition of the album. Putting that many songs ou there is a giant challenge. However, after almost 3 grueling hours, I don't think that they have actually lived up to the challenge. - The entire album is full of bits and scraps that frankly should have been left in the cutting room floors. - It's not bad that they created all the bits. But getting them out is such an important part of the creative process and the album feels like they skipped this entire part. - Not recommended to anyone but to the most bored cynics.

Not for me. Dour.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

(1) I’d like to know more about what this is… I’m sure someone thinks this is the best band in the world,I would love to hear from you. Try to convenience me the beauty of this album, but for me heck: No! Rating of a one. Maybe I’m not cool enough! It’s just too weak, soft.

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

Own it often listen

I finally got through all 69 songs!

Allt of langt. Nokkur góð lög þarna en mikið spólað.

Ágætt stöff en alltof mörg lög.

Insane concept. 2 stars for originality

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”).

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.

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

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.

It’s very strange. A lot of varied songs and musicality.

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.

3/4 of this could have been condensed into an email.

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.

really wanted to like it bc it's a more interesting concept? but i couldn't finish the album. boring, repetitive, lyrics are corny, and the female vocalist was so grating i couldn't get through a single song with her. 2/5, saved solely by the fact its not bad just... boring

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.

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.

Usually if you have a 3 hour album with 69 songs, I would expect you to have at least one idea. However this album sounds like it was made in an afternoon as a demo tape that they were then forced to release at gun point. Maybe it got better after song 20 but there’s no chance I was listening any further.

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

What a waste of time... This is a gimmick album, and not even a good one. On paper, it seems really funny, but in execution there's not enough time given to any song for them to ever really become good. Even if they took the good songs on this album and focused on refining them, they'd only really have an EP's worth of songs, and it would still only be good at best. The better songs on this album do show promise, but I don't think they'd ever be great, and they're sandwiched between 15 minutes of bad and sometimes cheesy too. Favorite Song(s): Reno Dakota

Not every song is amazing, but taken as a whole it is a work of breathtaking genius, combining wit and heartache

I cannot believe I sat through this. Some songs were nice, but a lot of them were undoubtably filler. Although "69 Love Songs" was an interesting concept, the execution was poor. Most of the songs were half-baked, irritating and repetitive. While I am all in favor of the idea of a lengthy concept album, this particular one lacks conceptually and musically. As an indie pop listener, I do not claim The Magnetic Fields.

There's some good songs in here but you're gonna need a MAGNET to find them in a FIELD this big. 2.5 rounded down due to absurd length and low quality filler. I respect the bit of having 69 songs but not if you're half-assing it this much

Stephin, Your Album Is Too Long I respect the gimmick, but it's really, really samey... and it's not even that good of a samey! I say this as someone who listened to the entire Gershwin Songbook, I did not feel like listening to all of this.

Waaaayyyyyy too long, way too unvaried, and what variances there were were annoying or just unprofessional-sounding. If an album is going to present itself as a three-hour opus, it had better damn well earn it.

I have so many thoughts and none of them are positive. Stephin Merritt is now my enemy. Why did he want 100 songs? Why is this on the list? Why does he sing like that? I got 34 songs in. Almost halfway. I got progressively angrier as I listened to it. What a massive waste of time. No album should demand this much of my time. I liked one or two songs maybe. Every song Merritt sang on, I had to skip. It was a mix of his voice and some of the music behind it. Due to so many factors, this might be my least favorite album on the list. If I ever see Stephin, it’s on SIGHT.

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

This album is like a testament to man's arrogance. I can't think of a single artist I like enough to sit through three hours of their music at once and it certainly isn't this one. I honestly do not think there is even enough good material on here for a single album. I have no idea why critics viewed this so favorably because I did not perceive any of the creativity or cleverness. I thought the lyrics were embarrassingly bad on a lot of these and they never got better. Maybe it's all supposed to be overdone on purpose or ironic? If so, why am I spending three hours listening to someone's inside joke? The only reason this album appears on this list and the Rolling Stone list is because people go wow big album.

nettes konzept aber kann iwie nix damit anfangen

Rakastan tätä bändiä ja tätä albumia. Ihana yllätys, että tuli täällä vastaan! Monet näistä biiseistä on jo pitkään kuulunu mun vakikuunteluun <3 <3

Way too long, most of these songs should’ve stayed in the studio

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.

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.

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.

I got through 14 tracks. Eventually I will get back to this to cross it off for real

2 stars Yesterday I commented on how double albums were an aged concept and I got a 3 hour triple album. I’ll watch my tongue… It’s obviously outrageous and overstuffed with nonsense. There’s some good stuff sure, but is it really an album? It’s abstract art. It’s something else. This is less an album you must listen to and more of, at best, an album you must hear of. It’s a chore to get through and it’s not worth finding the songs that are good and compiling them into a reasonable length playlist.

A gem

well the title aint lyin

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.

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?

WHY

An interesting ambitious idea and had plenty of good songs, though the length didn't feel fully warranted

Just what I wanted! A 69 song album with a run time of 2:30 hours of songs that all sound the same!

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

All filler no killer

One of my all-time favorite albums. Despite the album's length, I've listened to it from start to finish many times. You might expect 69 songs about love to get old/repetitive, but they're all so unique (covering many genres) and range from being catchy to downright gorgeous songs.

Yep, it's a fad massively carried by it's concept.

It’s definitely 69 songs.

Listened to this on and off throughout the day. The only album in over 800 so far that I've not listened to all the way through. Completely self-absorbed by Magnetic Fields. Nobody needs to listen to 3 hours of anything. Any band without their head up their arse would have finessed this to maybe a double album of 18 really, really good songs. 2 stars because there are some good tracks on here, but not 69 of them.

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

Fav: Sweet-Lovin’ Man Least Fav: I Shatter Nearly 3 hours later, I have discovered that just because you can do something - doesn’t mean you should do it

23 would've done.

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

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"

Interesting 'compilation' of songs but a bit too somber for me.

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.

Too long

que ideia de jerico é essa de botar 69 musicas num album????? e o pior é que é tão grande que você acaba esquecendo todas as músicas vsf vou dar 2 só porque ao menos eles tinham um conceito (eu acho)

I find it a little hard to believe that anyone (except the band themselves) thought a 69-track record was a good idea. It's in poor taste, for more reasons than one. And the songs seem to get more deluded and obscure the further you delve. The first half of disc 1 isn't bad at all, but then the Magnetic Fields really seem to go off the deep end. The duo of Fido Your Leash Is Too Long / How Fucking Romantic is just strange: lots of wacky electronic sounds that are more distracting than interesting, and then a 1-minute track that very much goes against the album's title. (Unless this whole thing is meant to be a sarcastic metaphor about how true love is impossible? Could be.) By disc 2, less than half of the songs are musically convincing, and far too many are experimental in the absolute worst kind of way. Roses / Love Is Like Jazz is a complete trainwreck with absolutely nothing catchy or memorable. You won't be chatting to your friends about that great song you heard on the radio, Love Is Like Jazz. You have to wonder: what are The Magnetic Fields going for? Random noise acting as the most fillery filler of all time in order to hit that 69 benchmark? (Yes, I think that's exactly what they're doing.) The band has this "friendly quirky acoustic country band" feel going, and it's honestly pretty great. At least, to begin with. After the first 40 minutes, it gets a little stale. And after the next 40, and the next 40, and the next 40, you want to smash a guitar into your own head. The female vocal is strong. I first noticed it in Reno Dakota, one of a slew of 1-minute ditties, and I very much enjoyed it. The main male vocal sounds like a peculiar cross of Johnny Cash and Nick Cave – and under normal circumstances, that would be a huge plus. Unfortunately, I don't think the low budget electro-country-pop style really suits his voice. Papa Was a Rodeo is the best use of his voice, and it takes listening (suffering?) through half the album to get there. The album is an extremely inconsistent variety pack of several (mostly retrospective) genres and sounds. Some of it works, some doesn't. But in my mind, consistency is key, so this one's a bit of a miss. 2/5 Key tracks: All My Little Words, I Don't Want to Get Over You, I Think I Need a New Heart, Papa Was a Rodeo, Epitaph for My Heart

Good

Ok no

truly has 69 love songs. none spoke to me. unfinished.

After about 15 tracks that can best be summarized as making me feel like John Belushi on the stairs at the Toga Party, I said “Jeez, how many tracks are on this album”. Discovering that this asshole released a 3 hour album and the first of the 3 discs can most generously be described as parody I binned the listening immediately. What a load of codswallop.

So he backed off from 100 songs because that would have been too long? Maybe he should have kept cutting it down. To four. Or two. Or maybe just none at all. Now in fairness, there may be one or two good songs in here, but I didn’t listen to the whole thing. It was just too long. In fact, I was wanting it to be over two songs in. In the 1/3 of it I did hear, the thing that was missing most was any real emotion. It’s hard to take an album of love songs serious if there is no sense of love in them. Remember kids, quality over quantity.

really impressive, but man, 3 hours is so long

Not 4 me

69 songs! What a novel concept. Sadly, the execution of this was significantly inferior to the idea. Not that this album doesn’t have some interesting parts to it, the playing is alright, and the voices are interesting. The depth of the one singer’s voice reminded me a lot of the Crash Test Dummies. I probably would give this a one, cause they really aren’t any standout songs, which is incredibly hard to do when you have 69 attempts. But I’m giving an extra star for effort.

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?

Eh

Yes, this album actually contains 69 songs, and I couldn't find two that were exactly the same. Congratulations—mission accomplished! On closer inspection, this project has all the weaknesses you'd expect: many of the songs are difficult to distinguish from one another, some are very short (do they even count?), and none of them have been comprehensively arranged and produced. In other words, the whole thing prioritizes quantity over quality, and I don't like that. The Magnetic Fields brought “69 Love Songs” to the stage, but refused to play it in its entirety in one evening. Apparently, they were annoyed by their own material.

3 Chapters, 3 hours, 3 Stars

Way too hipstery

ah yes, the hipsters’ white album. The album every record store nerd in the early 2000s used to test your indie bona fides. Well, friends, I have always failed because I have always hated this record. You hear the concept and wow, what a cool idea. Then you listen to Stephen Merritt’s awful voice mumbling boring sketches of songs for three hours and you say, ah that’s why no one ever did this before. It’s a terrible fucking idea. He recently toured this and you had to sit through two nights to get all 69 songs. I can’t imagine paying for that torment. Anyway, this album is my musical Gravity’s Rainbow. I don’t get it and no matter how many times I try, I can’t finish it.

Oh my God. I finally finished this over 8 or 9 sessions. If this was only 40 minutes long it would get one star for trying way too hard to be cutesy while producing some very bland music. Add the fact that this album is 3 hours long and you have a candidate for worst album on the list. What a colossally terrible idea for an LP. 0.5/5.0: Unlistenable

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.

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

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

THIS IS BAD AND IM A BAD LOVER

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 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.

I am the childish adult that always laughs when I see a number 69. This album is bringing that to the next level. 69 love songs? Are you kidding me?. At first I was a bit frustrated with the length of it by just looking at it, but the time flew buy and I had a good time. Some really great song on here, some not so good, but I think it deserves a five because of the concept and execution. Overall a great example of free will.

I was surprised how many of these songs I enjoyed listening too

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.

Крейзи концепт. Много хороших песен, разбавленных просто приятными. Лучшая песня - I Don't Want to Get Over You.

It feels like the only thing this album is known for is being long, which is, like… okay? It’s a concept album, so what’s the concept? Being long? I mean, this is not even the longest album I’ve listened to. The only difference is that the longest album I’ve heard wasn’t long for the sake of being long, and had 10 songs instead of 69. It's not that it's repetitive or monotonous—it's not. This album actually has a lot of variety when it comes to instrumentation and vocal styles. I don't even mind most of the songs here (but don't particularly like them either). Some of them are extremely low effort, sure, but I can’t say I hated anything on this album. There's just too many of them (69, to be exact). I would rather listen to a couple of long songs than a bunch of shorter ones. They’re much more memorable this way. After a while, despite the fact that the songs here are different, they started to blend together as I began to lose interest. None of them stood out, which is not surprising. If your goal is to record 69 songs for a single album, you can’t really afford to come up with elaborate compositions for each one of them, and it’s even harder if you’re also limiting yourself in subject. Have I already mentioned that there are 69 songs on this album? At least one of them doesn't even have anything to do with love songs (Experimental Music Love), so the name is not even accurate. At least they’re not all about straight people, which is already more variety than 98% of love songs... Ah, I get it now. They were mad that straight people monopolized love songs, and this is an attempt to balance the scale—in one album, because why the fuck not. The subject of love doesn’t interest me whatsoever, which definitely a part of the problem, but I also don’t like the execution. At the same time, I don’t see how it could’ve turned out any better. I just don’t think this was a good idea. 5/10

There's probably a pretty decent album buried in there somewhere but I wasn't going to listen to 5-6 albums worth of material to try and find it.

Oh boy, my last of the epically long albums has finally arrived. I only know one song by The Magnetic Fields, so this is going to be a very new experience for me. I honestly have no idea of what to expect from the other 68 songs that I’ve never heard, but hopefully this album will be able to justify the three hours it’s going to take up! I’ll break each volume down individually, and then summarize the whole album at the end. Volume 1 This first volume was certainly something. It started off with “Absolutely Cuckoo,” which, definitely lived up to its name in its sound. The rest of the first volume was pretty uneven. Some songs were really beautiful, and some were really jarring. There were some interesting production choices, like vocal distortions and sounds that I could best describe as annoying. I did appreciate that there were some additional vocalists, other than Stephen Merritt, because his singing was really hit-or-miss with me. Even though there were some really nice sounding songs on this first volume, a lot of what was here was kind of forgettable, and sometimes the lyrics felt generic and bland. My favorite tracks on this disc were “All My Little Words,” “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits,” “I Think I Need a New Heart,” “Sweet-Lovin’ Man,” and “The Book of Love.” Out of all of those, “The Book of Love” was my favorite. I loved how gentle the strings were, and the lyrics were fantastic. This song always makes me think of Scrubs, no matter whose version I’m hearing. So far, I’d probably give this album two stars, but I’ll keep an open mind for the rest of it. Volume 2 After a rocky start with “Love Like Jazz,” this volume was much better than the first one. I really liked the melodies created by the electronic instruments on this volume much more than volume one. There were some really strong stretches of songs on this part of the album, complete with beautiful music and great lyrics. This section of the album felt much more even, and the songs moved at a much faster pace for me, even though it was the same amount of songs, and roughly the same length in terms of time. “Love Like Jazz” and “I Shatter” were the lowest points of this volume. “Love Like Jazz” felt like it thought it was clever, but I found it to just be pretty annoying and disjointed. The vocals on “I Shatter” felt really gimmicky, and I found this song to be unenjoyable as a whole. There were a smattering of songs that were just okay to start off this volume, but once “Grand Canyon” started, this section of the album took off, and didn’t look back. “Long-Forgotten Fairytale” was my favorite song on this section of the album. The vocals, main melody, and lyrics were all incredible. The percussion and bass complimented the light electronic elements really well. This song felt like early Depeche Mode merging with Violator era Depeche Mode. Other highlights from this part of the album were “No One Will Ever Love You,” “If You Don’t Cry,” “You’re My Only Home,” and “Abigail, Belle of Kilronan.” After this, I’m really excited for the last part of this album. Disc 3 Like the first two parts of this album, this third and final volume also started off with a song that I didn’t care for, “Underwear.” And like the first volume of this album, I really didn’t care for this final section, as 69 Love Songs plodded toward the finish line. I didn’t find anything particularly noteworthy about the music on this volume, nor I was I very impressed by the lyrics. Moreso than the other two volumes, this final volume had several songs that I thought were pretty grating or annoying, like “I Can’t Touch You Anymore,” “Strange Eyes,” “Xylophone Track,” and “Zebra.” However, “It’s a Crime,” “I’m Sorry I Love You,” “Yeah! Oh, Yeah!,” and “The Night You Can’t Remember were the best parts of this volume. “I’m Sorry I Love You” was my favorite of those good songs. The rhythmic elements were great, and I loved the tinny sound of the overall production. The vocals were excellent too, and it had a folk vibe that I really enjoyed. All the other songs were pretty unremarkable though, and this volume didn’t come close to volume 2. Overall, 69 Love Songs was a bloated and uneven journey. The concept is great, but The Magnetic Fields just couldn’t justify their vision in my opinion. There were some really good moments on the second volume, but the rest of the album paled in comparison to that middle section. Maybe 25 or 30 love songs would have been more palatable.

I got 2/3 of the way through but didn't finish. Songs are whimsical but 3 hours is way overkill. Anyone else kinda reminded me of They Might Be Giants? Just me?

Nice (but not really).

You would think there would be a couple of decent songs with 69. 1 star or F.

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.

Infuriating.

The more I listened to this album, the more it pissed me off. The Magnetic Fields can kick rocks.

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.

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

This sucks. I think the concept of "everyone performs select songs and the crowd votes on who did it best" is cool. But it didn't need to be 3 hours of music. The joke "69 love songs" is funny, but I dont think there is a good singer here. The girl is better tho. This just goes on for wayyyy too long and I can't believe I listened to it all. There are some good moments, but I'd hope out of 69 songs. They didn't need this many...AND THEY WANTED 100. Liked Songs 16/69: "All My Little Words" , "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off" , "Come Back From San Francisco" , "I Think I Need a New Heart" , "Parades Go By" , "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" , "Sweet Lovin' Man" , "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" , "Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old" , "Grand Canyon" , "No One Will Ever Love You" , "Crazy For You But (Not That Crazy)" , "Long-Forgotten Fairytale" , "The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Crazy" , "I'm Sorry I love You" , "Meaningless"

This would've been tolerable if it were 10 songs. There was absolutely no reason I needed to hear another 59. 1.5

Everything about this one was repulsive to me. The vocal performances, The melodies, the instrumentation, the fact that it's three fucking hours long. I got through most of the first hour and just couldn't do it anymore. I'll give it two stars instead of one because Logan tried to make the argument that it is a satire, and I guess I can see that. Still wasn't fun to sit through for me though.

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.

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.

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).

If this was strictly instrumental this would get a 2, but the droning vocals drag this down to a 1. I also can’t think of any reason for an album to be 3 hours except for being pretentious.

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.

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

Some of these are ok but a 3-hour album? Cmon man these weren’t all ready for prime time

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

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.

Overblown when it came out. Still unlistenable to me now.

Far too long and mostly forgettable.

This album is 3 hours long. It literally contains 69 songs. It's "indie" because any record company employee who approved this album's making would have been summarily executed. And some of the lyrics. Oof. It sounds written for - maybe by? - middle school kids. The exemplar for me is "Like a Chicken with Its Head Cut Off" which contains an uncomfortably graphic description of the titular chicken. In a "love song." This might be the worst album on the list.

I do not like this album. The first part is decent but I really just hate Stephin Merrit's voice. It's grating and pretentious to me. Halfway through the second album I threw in the towel. I know a lot of folks love this album but I hate it. I feel like they had a decent album here but some editing would have made this an okay album.

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.

I can easily listen to music for 3 hours. But not this music. Could not get through the whole album. Some of it was dreadful.

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

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.

I dig several Magnetic Fields songs, but listening to them for over two and a half hours is kind of a chore.

Just about 25% of the songs are bangers. That leaves 75% that are OK at best. Some are downright terrible. There's definitely a 5 star album hidden in the 3 hour slog.

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

Listened Before? N I'm sorry, I'm not interested in a 3-hour album with nearly 70 songs on it. Especially by a pretentious indie band. I listened to part of it but I'm not spending most of my day on this. What I heard of it was lots of mumbling and minimalist recording. No thanks. Added to Library? N Songs added to playlist: I Don't Want to Get Over You

point0.

nice

I know everyone has ragged on this one already so I will keep it brief. Didn't need to be so long man. 3/10

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.

Yeha no

Quite a lot going on.

I like the idea, don't get me wrong, but the daunting (near) 3 hour playtime and number of songs really just made them all sound boring and sameish. I was over it by the one hour mark. Maybe that was the whole point they were going for? To show that love songs can be thrown together easily and are very cookie-cutter? I don't know, I didn't read the Wikipedia article for this one.

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.

Skräp

Too much...

Today is the day where I finally get this one I've heard so much about. Conclusion: Terribly long and boring.

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.

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. :)

An epic journey of love, hate and gleeful weirdness.

This is going to take awhile.

Who the fuck puts out an album with 69 songs.. No.

Some solid stuff on here but it definitely feels like the name came first and then the songs were churned out to get to 69. A lot of filler and stupid diddies

Way too long but I dig it

A crazy long album of poetic songs with a bassy primary delivery. Not for me thk

Concept 5/5 Execution 2/5 Songs 2/5 Pain of the almost 3 hours of listening 1/5 At a push there is an albums worth of songs on here, would that make the 1001 - almost definitely not. (…Almost because there is a lot of dross)

Nicht so ganz meine Musik

I lost count. Can somebody tell me how many love songs are on this album? It better be a funny number.

This album is not bad. The problem is it's also not good. Which means the only notable thing about it is its extreme length, and that is not a good thing to be known for.

Trash. Utter trash.

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.

#692. Neat, I guess, but I'm not listening to this whole thing. 3/5: fine

Only got a few songs in. There were literally 69 songs and it didn't get off to a strong start.

Dope

This is it, my final album. I can’t believe the algorithm spat out a nearly 3 hour long album for me to finish on. Well played generator, well played. I was dreading this but I actually liked it. I always assumed this would be some shitty rock album but it’s indie pop, which I like. I saved several songs to keep on my phone. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to every song but every now and then, one would stand out for being catchier than the others. It’s been a long 1230 days since I started (I took some breaks). In that time there have been births and deaths in my family, I broke my foot, I had surgery on my jaw, I went to Germany twice, the UK once, went to about a dozen concerts in metro Detroit, Chicago, London, Toronto, Vegas, and others (Oasis X3, Green Day, Metric X2?, Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, Teddy Swims, The Swell Season, Kaleo, et al). I don’t know if I really thought I’d ever finish this but it turned into a cherished hobby that I loved telling people about (probably more like bored people with). I can’t believe it’s over!

Yea, it’s fucking long but it’s consistently Nice! I personally only need a couple tracks at a time. 4 stars

Wow. This was bad. I can’t help thinking how this album was financially backed by someone or some group. To each his own and for me this was cringe worthy.

Ambitious, but too much chaff.

The longest album from this challenge. I could not finish it , don’t have enough time to listen to it.

I'm sure all the good songs come later, but I tapped out at about 12.

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.

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.

The story behind the album is interesting but the actual album is not.

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.

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.

69 trite songs is just way too many for me.

Mid

There is no logical reason why I like this album, but I do.

How many songs are in the list is enough to tell you what score this should get.

I prepared myself to listen to the longest album in the 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die series and then got served the second longest one for my listen today, I guess you can say that is karma working against me. Thankfully I have heard this album before, but I wanted to relisten because I feel I'd appreciate this album much more with all the knowledge about music I have now. For this project being the 2 hours and 52 minutes it is, I have to say this album absolutely flies by as each and every song here feels so unique in its' own right and doesn't repeat the same kind of genre, sound, or even vocalist throughout each and every track unalike some other albums of this size I have heard before. This album displays some of the most interesting wordplay and perspectives of love I have heard in some time as it takes quite a high level of creativity to find 69 ways of expressing love that don't sound repetitive, overdone, or bland. I also found that there were a lot more songs I loved this time around and I was able to pick out so many new favorites I have never heard before such as Absolutely Cuckoo, Abigail, Belle of Kilronan, and A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off. It is crazy to say but this album feels pretty consistent in general despite all the left turns it throws at you, it all feels so fitting for one another and I don't usually say that about projects with this much range or length but somehow The Magnetic Fields got it all figured out. This album is nothing short of an impressive feat and I can see why it is so revered and beloved.

This is my 644th album and the first one I won't listen to, at least not in its entirety. 69 songs in 172 minutes, I mean, my life may be shit but I still value it more than dedicating three hours of it to this album. It's not worth it. 01) Absolutely Cuckoo - 6,0 02) I Don't Believe in the Sun - 5,5 03) All My Little Words - 7,5 04) A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off - 6,0 05) Reno Dakota - 5,5 06) I Don't Want to Get Over You - 6,0 07) Come Back from San Francisco - 6,0 08) The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side - 6,0 09) Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits - 6,5 10) The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be - 4,5 11) I Think I Need a New Heart - 5,0 12) The Book of Love - 5,5 13) Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long - 6,5 14) How Fucking Romantic - 3,0 15) The One You Really Love - 5,0 16) Punk Love - 1,0 17) Parades Go By - 5,5 18) Boa Constrictor - 4,0 19) A Pretty Girl Is Like... - 5,0 20) My Sentimental Melody - 5,0 21) Nothing Matters When We're Dancing - 5,5 22) Sweet-Lovin' Man - 6,5 23) The Things We Did and Didn't Do - 5,5 24-69) did not listen to - / TOTAL: 5,33 (53/100) Current ranking: 570/644 So, I decided to listen to Volume One only. Half of these songs sound like some kind of stupid nursery rhyme. Maybe I should have taken one rating off because I didn't listen to two thirds of the album, but I'll give them the benefit of a doubt. Things could only get worse...

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.

Banjo and folk, meets electronics. With some weird vocals added. Not my thing, sorry

Not gonna lie, got to the second song and thought about the album title. Looked at the album and realized it's probably literally 69 love songs and said no.

This was interesting as a concept album, and had quite a few that I really enjoyed.

Too many songs! But I like most of them. Lotsa variety!

My favorite album

Jeg lyttede til den i en sitting, som vikingerne ville have gjort. Dybt imponeret over kvaliteten, men mængden holder mig fra at give den 5, selvom der ikke var nogen dårlige numre på

Har brokket mig en del over plader som er for lange, men her flipper det altså på et tidspunkt og bliver en positiv ting at der er så sindssygt meget materiale. "The crazy bastard actually did it"-agtigt, specielt fordi det meste af det her materiale er godt, og det er i hvert fald alt sammen interessant! Første disk er dog klart bedst (måske bare fordi det er den min lady wife Rikke plejede at sætte på i bilen så det er den jeg kender bedst) (fun fact, jeg gav min lady wife Rikke en cd-kopi af 69 Love Songs i en eller anden årsdagsgave da vi gik på gymnasiet)

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 love this band and this album is the pinnacle of their work! Loved it!

Really liked it. So varied, and doesn’t get boring despite being so long. Great concept for a triple album

7/10… indie pop / chamber pop

country etc., 3er box, 1999 -> 2

"But the one thing I hate 'Cause I can't concentrate No, I just can't abide Yeah, I've never the time to 69" - lyrics from "69" by Self Esteem Don't know why I kept thinking of that Self Esteem song while attempting to listen to this tedious slog of an album. It's a mystery!

can you have nostalgia for something you don't even really like? I think that's this album for me. I don't really like Stephin Merritt's voice or this band but when I was in my early 20s (a couple years after this album was released), the hipsters I worked with had this on regular rotation. So it takes me back to a time and place but I'm rolling my eyes just as hard now as I did then. And 3 disks at 2hrs 45min? Jesus...

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.

Love it. It’s all in their whimsical lyrics.

I skipped through the first couple songs, no way I’m sitting through almost 3 hours of this nonsense. I’m sure there are some good songs in there, but I’m not an indie pop synth listener so someone will have to direct me towards those tracks individually.

I could care less about this one. This reeks of pretension. (but I must throw in the obligatory, "Nice")

After a quick look at the track listing, not sure I am going to make it through all these songs..... Update -- I did not make it through all the songs.

They delivered what they promised

Too long

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

3/10

Interesting assortment of Songs

Utter Shite

Weird. Bad vocals.WTF is this?

Way more to listen to than I can handle in a single day. But what I listened to I like a lot. Definitely a vibe. Some off kilter instruments and sequencers. Singer doesn’t have a range but uses what he has very well.

Blind album and artist. Hot take but this gets a 4 from me at least. Between the wide variety and creativity of songs and themes of love, I thought this was very well put together. A lot of the songs are short but pack a punch too. Book of Love was such a beautiful song honestly too, that I might learn to play it. Its cute and endearing and holds a lot of metaphorical meaning that I never thought I could hear. The song gave me tingles and was emotional.

Uggh

I can confidently say I will never listen to this album in full again. This album caused me to go 3 days behind schedule in this project. Are they for real? Most of the songs are BS and feel like they just wanted to get to 69 (teehee). I did start off giving it a legitimate shot and found towards the end I was so burnt out. I absolutely gravitated more towards the female voice, I enjoyed the songs she led way more. Definitely not one of the best albums of all time, probably just on this list because it’s out there. They should have knocked down the set list to the standouts but alas I suppose they got the attention they wanted with this stunt.

Just because you can write 69 love songs and record them….does not mean you should. Some of the songs are decent, but is this on the list because of the novelty of this album or because it is good music? I think the former.

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

Ain’t nobody got time for that

3/5

It's relentless smultz is somehow charming. Way more diversity on this album than I thought there would be.

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.

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.

Don't like it

This album is apparently 4 discs at 2 hours and 52 minutes long. I'm livid, hahaha. It's also rife with mediocrity and laconic vocals. Sardonic social commentary, it's instrumental selections are all over the place. I feel like it had some nuggets of good musical ideas, but they just published ALL of their musical ideas in a single album. I'm being a jerk about it, and I kind of leaned into that. it probably isn't all that bad, but it came at terrible timing with how this endeavor feels a bit laborious right now.

very large body of work here. sounds like a slightly upbeat The Handsome Family on a good day.

An album of love songs about love songs paying loving tribute to many genres while still maintaining a unique, dark, sense of humor through it all. The album is a mixed bag, seemingly by design. Not afraid to go for the cheapest rhyme. Sometimes eye-roll-inducing but often incredibly pleasing, the way only a stupid lyric can be. As I was thinking this, Stephin Merritt said it better than I could: "A melody is like a pretty girl Who cares if it's the dumbest in the world" After some googling, that lyric appears to be a riff on a song written by Irving Berlin. It is a good reminder that I won't even scratch the surface of this album's depth on a single listen. Undoubtedly a masterpiece to Merritt's fans, and still worthwhile for the rest us, despite its excessive length.

One senses this is too droll by half and excessively ironic, plus maybe a touch smug and far too self-satisfied – but then the gets to feeling overwhelmed by just how good and clever it is – so it's a smugness/drollery/self-satisfaction with portfolio. And despite one being right in the middle of the target demo (aging, well-read, perhaps overeductated hipster living in Brooklyn, attending Moth and McSweeneys' events), this never quite clicked or fully engaged in real time – so one's had to work a bit to appreciate it, TBH, which isn't necessarily a ringing endorsement. That said, the variety and quantity are impressive. Certainly the song titles appeal as ideas ("I Don't Believe in the Sun," "I Dont' Want to Get Over You") worth exploring poetically or musically, as is the implied thesis that all songs are love songs. But one's patience goest get a little strained by too many not-even-half-baked concepts (e.g., "How Fucking Romantic) which are seem to be included to showcase a single line (e.g., rhyming off "Rodgers and Hart tune"). "Fido" and "Punk Love" are similarly superfluous. Hence we get 69 love songs, when 42 migtha sufficed and/or actually strengthened the record. There's a sense that they're all just clever ditties but it does get a touch overwhelming. Indeed, the observation that "the book of love is long and boring" (one of the more memorable lines) could also be applied to this record, Disc 2 is much musically diverse and thus interesting (with several of the better and more fully developed cuts, including "Grand Canyon," "No One Will Love You" and "Papa Was a Rodeo"). But overall, one finds Jonathan Richman to be both funnier and more sincere/humane. Still, it does accrete to an excellence or near-excellence, that is undeniably witty and urbane, even if it does carry on too long.

There is a record-and-a-half of really great music here. There is also a record-and-a-half of nothing. This is a three star record cut down by its bloat and arrogance.

Oh boy... here we go... I don't work tomorrow, so I was one day off from getting this on the weekend. I guess I will divide my review by disc. Looking back at this review is like watching someone slowly go insane. DISC 1: First off, I am not crazy about his voice, I wouldn't say he is bad, but I couldn't say he is any better than good. Second off, this just sounds like generic mid 2000's indie radio rock, so I guess it was ahead of its time. Third off (?), I am currently on song 15 and I feel like every song so far has been 4 chord songs in 4/4 with the basic open chords without any other instruments besides that one with a synth part. I really hope they add more instruments on the later discs because this is really starting to get boring and repetitive. Well song 16 added some drums, but the song sounds like ass :/. Tangent: About 10 years ago when I first listened to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness the only version on Spotify was the extended version that Spotify say is "about 6 hours" (lol). I knew it was a double album and at that time I was really into Pink Floyd's The Wall, so I thought oh ok, it is only like an hour and 20. Then I listened to the whole thing (the main songs, not the demos) and loved it. Every song sounds so unique and there are so many great ideas. I personally think it is one of the best paced albums ever. I had no idea I was wrong, I still thought it was an hour and half. I thought this for years, and I listened to this album a lot. It took me years to realize it was actually a double CD and not a double vinyl, and it was really 2 hours long. I have no idea how I didn't notice sooner, but it is just so good that it doesn't feel long. Back to Disc 1: Now comparing that feeling to this album. Disc 1 has felt like the same song 20 out of 23 songs. I heard somewhere that this album had 69 unique interpretations about love, but so far most of them have just been sappy love songs. Unlike Mellon Collie, this album definitely feels like it's length. I just don't think these guys have enough ideas to make an almost 3 hour album. At least the end of Disc 1 had more songs with the full band. Disc 2: "The same song a million times" haha I get it. I don't really get the "in different ways" line though. I am not really sure I would call that song jazz, it sounds more like Cleopatra's Cat by the Spin Doctors if you know that song. So far, Disc 2 has been shaking things up quite a bit, which is good, a lot of new styles of songs, but I don't think there has been a single song over a 3/5 on this album yet. I think the female vocalist is worst than the guy, and it seems like they give her all of the worse songs too. If You Don't Cry is not very good. 3 synth songs in a row... the synth ones are the worst ): all of the variety at the start of Disc 2 seems to be gone. Disc 2 is starting to become kinda bad. I am at the halfway point, and this is the song were I am changing my rating from a 3 to a 2. The generic indie pop rock songs were inoffensive, but these synth ballads are just bad, and there are too many of them. Kiss Me Like You Mean it, is also pretty bad. This album just keeps getting worse, I might start skipping the songs that I can't stand. "The light reflecting off the mirror ball"???? you mean a disco ball, it is the same number of syllables. I completely zoned out for the last 5 or 6 songs, anyways onto Disc 3, hopefully it gets better. Disc 3: Underwear is not a good sign of things to come, and these streaming numbers are really starting to fall off. HOW IS IT'S A CRIME ONE OF THE LONGEST SONGS ON THIS ALBUM?!?! ITS A 3 SECOND IDEA!?!? IT IS BARELY A SONG?!?! I AM LOSING MY MIND!!! Every Disc gets worse and worse... Love in the Shadows another nothing song, great just what I needed. I just can't anymore, these are barely songs. They are fragments of ideas. They really did throw all the worst songs at the end of the album, they really thought no one would get here. But I did, and they suck. They really ended with a knock off krusty krabs ass song. What a joke. Review: Well that was 1 and a half hours of some of the most mid music I have heard followed by an hour of torture. I don't think even if you condensed this down to 45 minutes of the best songs it would be any higher than a high 3. I think the only way to "fix" this album in my eyes would to take a handful of the better songs and expand on them and really work them into something more unique. This album is the definition of quantity over quality. I really did not enjoy this album, but it isn't unlistenable which is the only reason it isn't a 1. This should be called 1 love song 69 times. Low 2.

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.

That’s certainly 69 love songs. I can’t complain about false advertising. Could they have picked a lower number? Probably. Not every song is essential. But the experience was worthwhile. When I was vibing with this I was REALLY vibing with it. 4/5

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

As if I could listen to it all. Decent but not great.

Tooo drony for me

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

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.

Really good, and reminds me of college. It’s hard to grade this one, since it’s so long. If I think about it, there’s probably a 5 star album in there, a 4 star, and a 3 star. As much as I want to give this a 5…it’s honestly an overall 4. I listened to this in three chucks and loved it.

what's with all these positive reviews I've stumbled upon, are you people mad? anyway, the 69 is overrated.

Nice. Also, no.

Pleasant tedium.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

If this was slimmed down to it’s 12 to 15 best songs it would probably score four or five stars. Too much stuff in it that is just there for the sake of it.

12 love songs would probably have done me. Long albums like this invariably end up including lots of tracks that should just have been b-sides, or left as demos to be released on coloured vinyl for Record Store Day years down the line. On the upside, I quite liked it! There’s some funny and moving songwriting here and if it was a 12-15 track album, I’d be all over it. That probably misses some kind of point, but I do think you can have too much of a good thing.

Off the cuff remark: littered with gems, comedy and also ill-thought ideas. Perhaps that was the point. There really are some great moments but it feels like there is a serious lack of thought about quality? Standout track: I Don't Want to Get Over You. Marvellous Revisit?: individual tracks, definitely. The whole thing at once, no, never again.

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.

Good god, it's actually 69 songs. It's a marathon of rumbling, clunky emotions, quirky and witty lyrics. Because I consider myself a proud weirdo, I try to pay maximum respect to other weirdos, so I'm bumping this up to four stars. Great work, yous.

too fucking long what the hell is this shit

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.