69 Love Songs

Campy and interesting... for about twenty of the 69 songs. Then it gets old quickly.

Uhhh, a bit on the long side. The songs are mostly pretty cool and well written, but I would much prefer an album of 12 of the best songs. Nearly 70 and the good ones just get lost with all of the ones that slid of the wall.

TLDR. No, actually, this album is fine, if not a little sappy.

Whimsical, at times brooding, folk pop/rock

This was tough to score due to the number of songs and length of this album. I did make a 2 times through and thought who in the world is crazy enough to do something like this? Then I started to think about love and the crazy things love makes us do. I believe in Love. I believe in the power of Love. I have to be careful because I could spend the next 3 days writing about the love I have for my wife. How every day I feel it grows stronger every single day and we've been married for almost 30 years. I hope that some day everyone can experience the feelings of love you just ache to be with that person. You can't wait to see that person after a day at work. Can't wait for the next great experience, next great concert, just the next time you look at each other, smile and just know how happy you are that person is part of your life. Hopefully for the rest of your life. God, it feels wonderful. I am a very lucky person to have my Mindy. So yeah, I can see how someone would write and record 69 love songs. Now the question is, was it good? Well to this listener, not so much. But if love inspired these guys to write 69 songs, love on people. Love on! Back to album, Papa Was a Rodeo was my favorite. Loved the opening line, "I like your twisted point of view, Mike!" Kind of ironic, don't you think? 3 for me. If you thought my rambling above was all over, you really don't want to hear the reasons for my score.

3 Well, this album certainly delivers what it promises in the title. Fortunately, I quite enjoyed its sound - or sounds, I should probably say. There’s a lot of unique, clever, and diverse songwriting going on that seems to touch upon a multitude of genres, yet all are interconnected under the common theme of love and share a distinct sort of indie flair. I also really dug the dude’s voice as well - its deepness pairs nicely with the songs, and while a touch imperfect, I thought that added to the overall indie charm of the album. Though, the other featured singers were definitely welcome additions that helped keep things fresh. However, no matter how you want to slice this album, it is 69 songs in 3 hours. I don’t care who you are, that kind of quantity quickly turns even the most enjoyable records into chores. I don’t know if they were just going for 69 because of the meme, but there’s absolutely no reason this couldn’t have been condensed down into like an hour-long album. There are some genuinely good songs here, but there’s also a lot of filler, and of that, there’s a lot that just kind of feel like half-baked ideas. Those, combined with the runtime, really seems to weaken the experience as a whole, which is a shame because I really feel like there is potential for greatness here buried somewhere. I respect the ambition, but imo albums shouldn’t be padded just because you have some extra material lying around - I mean, not even The Beatles could pull off a full double album without having to add a lot of BS. Quality over quantity always. I don’t have the time or energy to dive into the individual songs here, so instead, I’ll just list out my favorites: All My Little Words The Book of Love (better than Peter Gabriel’s cover) When My Boy Walks Down the Street Papa Was a Rodeo (great country tune) Yeah! Oh, Yeah!

Phew that was a long one. It took awhile, but it started to grow on me. Certainly sets a mood.

Exhausting but can’t say it wasn’t rewarding in some aspects. Some of these songs aren’t great, but honestly, a lot are. And they’re truly spread throughout the album. You’ll get a length of okay songs and then one will just give you a punch to the gut with its lyrics and illusions and hook and chorus. I love a bass voice in pop music. Liked the songs where he sang the most. It’s hard to say this is “worth it,” but I’m glad I finally listened to all of it. I could probably make a twenty song playlist of absolutely beautiful songs from this and it’d be five stars. But as it is, a strong three. What an oddity!

Kept it more interesting than I thought they would be able to

The One You Really Love // No One Will Ever Love You // Papa Was a Rodeo // Asleep and Dreaming // Underwear // Busby Berkeley Dreams //

13 or so would've been fine. I'd give a higher rating to an abridged version.

Bcp trop long. Pas pire tho.

tl;dl for one day lol

I found some of this entertaining, some good lyrics going on. But I only listened to about 10 songs before it started getting on my nerves

3.5/5. Struggling to decide whether I think it’s an ambitious display of talent or a silly gimmick. Its scope is tantalizing but there’s so much damn filler, it’s essentially a triple album.

Somewhere in this album is probably a 5* album. However there's just too much fluff to ever take it seriously

Oh my god, I did it. I finished this album on the very day it was assigned. Okay. So it's not terrible, but I heard 69 songs and zero reasons for it to be on this list. It's a gimmick album. If a painter said "I'm gonna do 69 paintings in two days" and they were all just two or three swipes with a roller brush, would it be celebrated? Probably, actually, the art world is weird. Some of the songs were good, but never fleshed out enough. And none of them were particularly catchy. One or two might've made it on a playlist of mine, but I'll never go back and try to figure out which ones. Anyway, good for us all, for slogging through. I really wish I had liked it more.

Fucking he’ll this was a slog! It’s been on my pending list since July 24 so finally got round to it thanks to a long train journey. So what can I say about 69 songs about love? Some songs, some skits, some Leonard Cohen vocals, some banjo, some synth pop, some velvet underground, some low fi indie… some good… some forgettable… for me it’s an album famous for the concept rather than the execution. A tiring 3/5

Unnecessary. Like, why?!?? I’ll say it is impressive that someone can assemble 69 songs and a majority of them are entirely pleasant. You might get an occasional smile from an unexpected lyric, but there’s nothing that you are rushing to anyone with “You gotta HEAR THIS!!!” And there are some definite clunkers (love is like jazz, Washington DC, kiss me like you mean it, I shatter, kings, strange eyes, zebra). But overall, the number of decent songs gives it a pass in my book… one of the more difficult trials clocking in at nearly 3 hours.

Whew, that's a lot of love songs! It's a lot and all over the place but none of the tracks are really bad. I didn't catch anything really great either. Maybe something would grow on me on the 2nd or 3rd listen, but I'm not really going to invest the time to find out now. A ten-song edit of this collection would be nice to have.

Such an ambitious album - lots of fun songs but also incredibly silly ones. I love the range and the different styles - it's not something I could put in regular rotation but its worth a couple of listens to at least.

3.5

the concept is nice and I have affection for this album from my youth but it is extremely long and can be a bit tedious. This thing basically singlehandedly got me four albums behind on our listening journey so that was also extremely annoying

Ah yes, one of the infamously long ones. As soon as the first track started playing I thought "Oh no, oh hell." Thankfully, not every song had the same feeling as that first one or I would have lost it. Truthfully though this was so long I was not really able to give it a good critical listen. It seemed like there was some good variety, and I really didn't hate it as background music. I think there are a few songs I did really like maybe? I know there were definitely a few I hated. A second listen at some point might be able to help me hone in on that more. It seemed like a lot of it was kind of playful, which seems right to me for an album called 69 Love Songs. I fully did not realize they did the original version of The Book of Love. I've only ever heard the Neil Young version. That's definitely a great son though. My final thought is I think some people are a bit over dramatic about this album. Yeah it's unnecessarily long but is it actually THAT horrible to listen to? I suppose if the various singers voices aren't your thing I could see it but from some of the comments I have read I thought it might be WAY worse than it actually was.

Cool idea. It didn't hook me, and I'm pretty certain the banjo in the first few songs was the final straw. If I had absolutely nothing to do and I was in a comfy room with just this album, I'd take that journey. Until that day comes, this will be one of 1000 albums.

Oof. A pretty outrageous entry in this collection, given that it's asking for 3 hours of your life on what's likely an unknown quantity for most listeners (and while I've actually heard parts of this album before, I had the added disadvantage of feeling pressed for time trying to catch up with missed albums from traveling, but I really did listen to it all (really!)). Regardless, while there's a pretty understandable oversaturation trying to listen to this album in a single stretch, I'm still really impressed at the range of styles and love-song-themes in this album, and enjoyed most of them more than I expected. I'm kind of glad, though, that Stephin Merritt never pursued his original concept of staging the album as a theatrical revue, and find it a bit hard to imagine being one of the few people who attended their two-night performances of all 69 love songs. I feel like this album is best appreciated in small bites, maybe as part of a massive shuffle-play of many albums. And I'm also really impressed that this was created in 1999, as it anticipated the sort of album that would be perfect to be made and listened to during COVID.... The ones I liked more than others (in album order): "All my little words", "Reno Dakota", "Come back from San Francisco", "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side", "Let's Pretend we're bunny rabbits", "The Book of Love" (especially for its Peter Gabriel connection), "Nothing matters when we're dancing", "Love is like Jazz" (not perfect, but I liked the variety there), "No One will ever love you", "Promises of Eternity", "Long-Forgotten Fairytale", "Papa was a Rodeo", "I Shatter" (a very Philip-Glass/Kraftwerk-inspired love song), "I'm sorry I love you", "Acoustic Guitar", "Love is Like a Bottle of Gin", "Zebra"

Is it over yet?... Overall I didn't mind it but like many other listeners I found it a test of endurance. 25 years since it's release and I had never given it a listen and now I realise why I avoided this album. Unquestionably genius in some parts, what it does lack is Stephin Merritt having the ability to take a step back do decide to tidy up a song or two. In a way this is the musical equivalent of the book, Infinite Jest File under "self indulgent indie" right next to Illinoise

Too many songs! But I did have a fee favorites - they weren’t too long, but collectively it was very long.

хмммм осмелюсь ли я сказат...... шесят девят???????? Найййййссссссссссс )))))))))))))) так, погодите, вы там это, лопнули? Ну типа слушается ок, но там РЕАЛЬНО 69 песен на альбоме. Они неплохие, раз на раз, но так много я не готов слушать. Ну это альбом песен про любоу. Любоу мы знаем. круто.

I had an ex that really liked this band. I thought album was going pretty good but then it kept going and going and going. They needed to edit that track list a bit more and it would have been a 4.

One of the songs on this album is "Fido Your Leash Is Too Long". Well, Magnetic Fields, this album is too long. Good, but too long.

Although conceptually great and well carried out, it comes across as somewhat self-indulgent at a certain point without quite enough variations lyrically and musically to sustain it overall. The sheer number of songs and the variety are impressive and thematically it works, but it could have been more interesting.

Definitely has some good songs. Also, at first I thought that it wasn't that hard to sit through as it works well in the background, but at disc 3 I lost that feeling a bit... The singer has a great low voice

I get not looking twee but I don't get all the negative reviews from people who never listened to it. With a list this dense, you're going to get overly ambitious twee albums that are more concept than content. I've listened to this a few times in my life and it is a slog to get through. There's a few songs I actually like and listen to on their own but this album, I feel, is mostly remembered for it's length. Had this been just a 45 minute album called love songs, it would've vanished into the twee ether. It's not all that bad, just mostly unmemorable songs.

Too long

consistently good, but i definitely won't be coming back to this

In a 3 hour album there will no doubt be some good tracks worth remembering, but the rest landed without sticking.

Quite a fun experiment. Listened to this throughout the day at work and was never tearing my hair out which is an achievement for an almost three hour album I had no prior investment in. I'd say about 6 or 7 of the tracks really stood out to me - not the best hit rate but most I had no issue with, only a few clunkers. I don't think I'll be running this thing often but will definitely come back to those few tracks, and I think the concept is quite fun. Three and a half. Fave track: Papa Was a Rodeo

This feels like XTC would have been if instead of the Beatles the band worshipped more at the altar of Leonard Cohen or the Pogues. 1 album of this would be good to listen to at a time. 3 albums' worth? All at once? That's asking a lot. By the 3rd disc I had pretty much tuned out and it had started to sound very dreary. I knew the Book of Love with Merritt's, but I did not connect that it was on this. Nice to hear the original version. I would have liked these more if I listened to each disk separately. Release them as separate volumes, maybe. It's just way too much in one sitting. Top tracks: "The Book Of Love," "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing," "The Things We Did And Didn't Do," "You're My Only Home"

Feels a little pretentious to put out a 3-disc album just because the lead (Stephin Merritt) thinks he is a good writer. They could've stopped after disc one, which wasn't bad - some bad moments (Punk Love) but also some good moments (A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off). Disc two got off to a terrible start (Love is Like Jazz at song two - what was that?) but it had some good moments (When My Boy Walks Down the Street, Papa Was a Rodeo). Disc three was more of the same. I most preferred when their pianist/drummer Claudia Gonson sung (Acoustic Guitar was a particularly notable vocal performance by her). Shirley Simms was also great on Come Back From San Francisco. Not that Merritt's vocals are bad - sort of a cross between Nick Cave and Matt Berninger (The National). Sometimes it worked really well (I Don't Believe in the Sun, The Book of Love, The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure) and sometimes it didn't (Promises of Eternity). In the end, did I need 3 discs and 69 songs? Probably not, but it wasn't the worst 3 hour experience I've ever had.

To be fair, it is really hard to grade this without multiple listens. this is an eclectic and diverse group of songs and it is long......really long. That being said, it is mostly enjoyable so I would put this between 3-4 stars. 3 for length and the songs I don't like and 4 for the musicianship and the songs I do like. I plan to revisit this several more times but on first listen the song that stands out the most to me is, "No One Will Ever Love You".

Some real quality in there, but some dross as well. The edited version would be 👌🏻

It took me about a month to listen to. In small chunks it was fine. Individually the tracks can be great and there are some stand out tracks. But it was WAAAAAAYY TOOO LOOONG. I guess the finish helped them get attention, and considering that it was about 4 albums long the quality is remarkable. But I just didn't want to listen to 4 albums of this stuff back to back. 4 stars with one removed because of the length.

Some great songs, but far far too long

That’s a lot of love songs. Some are pretty clever.

yoshi's island

I like the Magnetic Fields, but I’m more a fan of their synth stuff. And 69 songs? Ehhh…

I love the variety of this album. Good listening.

Ok

so long! some cool weird shit in there

Such a hard album to rate. Because it could've been a really good to great album. Seriously, there's at least one 5 star album on here. Catchy songs in tons of different styles, all about one topic, and with a good use of guests vocalists. Lots of good stuff here. But for the love of god, learn to edit. A single album, less than an hour, would've been perfect. There are that many good songs. But there is also way too many songs that aren't good and the entire experience becomes tedious. It's pure self-indulgence to think that you have enough to say to fill out a triple album (and each one of those 3 discs are long.) 3 stars. Average out the good and the bad.

I'm going to give this a 2.5 rounded up to 3... I don't hate it, but it definitely seems like quantity over quality. It's impressive from that aspect. But from an album I need to listen to perspective? I don't know... I'm just more of a fan of a 35-45 minute album, generally. I think a big part of this kind of thing, is the more time you spend with it, the more it grows on you. So for a 3 hour album, in order to finish it, you have to spend a lot of time with it.

I liked the eclecticness and ambition but this was just too long to get a grip of. I liked what I heard though

Hard to score, because its obviously not meant to be listened to all the way through. And i think i respect it enough for its commitment to the bit. Not all songs are killer but some are and thats an achievement.

2.5 stars. Interesting conceptually, but at nearly 3 hours long it's lot to sit through. Lyrically clever at times as it's a take on love songs, not really love songs themselves. "I Don't Want to Get Over You", "The Book of Love", "Sweet-Lovin' Man" were the standouts.

Good but super long

Me ha resultado monótono pero quizá no elegí el momento adecuado para escucharlo.

I looked at the track list and thought, "There's no way I listen to the entire thing." And then I did. Thanks overnight shift! Honestly, bloat aside, there's a lot of fantastically catchy pop songs here. Not everything is a hit (Christ, could you imagine?). They switch up singers and styles so frequently that listening isn't a full chore. Is it easy to zone out to? Sure. But I found myself listening more than I anticipated I would. For my money, I think section/disc/whatever 2 is the strongest, and while I appreciate that the band just fucking went for it, it's not anything I plan on revisiting in its entirety. Favorite tracks: "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off", "The Book of Love", "No One Will Ever Love You", "Papa Was A Rodeo", "Busby Berkeley Dreams", "The Death of Ferdinand De Saussure"

I don’t know every album on this list. I try not to spoil too much of it for myself. But I know quite a few. And there was only one that I was legitimately dreading a full listen of. That’s this one. I was just hoping and praying I would get it on a day like Saturday, where I could just sit down for three hours and listen to it in one sitting. Unfortunately I was not granted that blessing. And so really the only way I was going to be able to finish the whole thing in time to write a proper review was to almost exclusively listen to this all day. This was a bad idea. I was torturing myself. This is basically three albums in one. And the problem is that even one of these would be too much for me. Nearly an hour is a lot of music. And before I had even finished the first one, I was already getting sick of this. Imagine Jeff Tweedy from Wilco said to the band, “Let’s take all of our scrapped songs and demos, good or bad, finish them, and make one big album”. Except throw out all of what makes Wilco so interesting. This has charming, comedic and lighthearted aspects to it. And they really weren’t lying. This is 69 different love songs. I can admire the creativity it takes to write nearly 70 unique songs about the same thing. And some of the songs do have great lyrics and meanings to them. But it sucks that I can’t remember any of it, because I turned my brain to mush with three hours of indie music. It is just too much of one thing for me. Some albums I will never listen to again because I really dislike them. With this, I will never listen to it again because I don’t want to put myself through that again. Rating: 5/10

I actually listened to all of this. A majority of it is very charming with nice melodies but also got annoying in places.

Listened to this during a flight to Paris and the whole way back. Still had half an hour of it left to do 😫 Not bad, but nothing needs to last for 3 hours

Wow they weren't kidding eh

Larguísimo, pero tiene sus joyas. No one will ever love you es una de mis favoritas de la vida.

It took quite a while to get through all 69 love songs due to its epic size, but it's just a like from me

it’s good, but it’s like reading the Iliad and the odyssey.

Not a bad collection of love songs. Was really well done, but as I think almost everyone can attest, just soooooo long. I'll give it an even 2.5/5

Listening to this whole album was a project in itself. Some of these had me laughing. Sometimes with the song. Sometimes AT the song. The lyric writing is elementary at best but one star for writing 69 songs and one star for making me laugh. Yeah oh yeah was hysterical.

Assigning a song to each of my next 69 hinge matches

Scrubs soundtrack ass music

What a unique and charming collection of songs. Some of them are little more than demos or short clips. A few of them are skippable but many of the songs are enjoyable. Overall the collection is a far too long and drags a bit by the end . As a collective project I don't expect to listen to this again but I am glad that I was exposed to this. Never heard of The Magnetic Fields before this. This lead singer has a unique voice that I suspect I will enjoy outside of this project. Interested in checking out some of their other hits. 2.64 stars stars

2.5

I knew this 172 minute long album would be coming up in the next year, so I took the opportunity to listen whilst I had an afternoon of quietly reviewing documents. I thought I'd write my review in real time, too. 11 tracks in, I really like this. It's pleasant indie music which ebbs and flows and an interesting meditation on various aspects of love. I also really like the low register vocals of Stephin Merritt and the variety of having about a third of the tracks sung by one of four other lead vocalists. Claudia Gonson's vocals are a particularly nice counterpoint to Merritt's. 23 tracks in and at the end of volume 1. The second half of volume 1 got a lot more musically experimental and varied, and is great! - As good as the first 12 tracks of volume 1 were, 172 mins and 3 seconds of the same thing would be a bit too much. 34 tracks in and half way through volume 2. It's similar to volume 1 so far, but somehow still enjoyable and not getting boring. 46 tracks, and 115 minutes and 37 seconds in, at the end of volume 2. It's starting to drag a little. Only one volume and less than an hour to go now. Volume 3 starts with a bit of a burst of energy, and is decent throughout with a pleasant vibe but plenty of variety and weirdness thrown in. Overall, this is an odd one. Although I didn't like every track, I liked every volume and can see how each track contributes to the volume. It is obviously too much to be listened to as an album in the normal way. It did drag a bit beyond the halfway point. However, this was purely because of the length. The music actually mitigated the dragginess. Considering I've thought some 30 minute albums dragged, it is testament to the quality of this that it only dragged a little. Scoring wise, each individual volume would be 3.5 or 4 out of 5. I'd knock a point off for the monstrous length which makes it impossible as an album, but would add half a point back on for ambition. Rating: 3.5/5 Playlist track: The Book of Love Date listened: 05/10/23 (generated 27/01/24)

Funny…quirky…might listen again. Boston dude.

As bloated as it might be, I gotta say that I actually enjoyed that one quite a bit. But you know, I'm a sucker for concepts revolving around some romantic sad bastards trying to understand love. Musically it has a bit of everything indie, at times sounding like some lightweight Nick Cave, some other songs reminded me of Belle & Sebastian or even Silver Jews. Of course it's too long but I felt drawn in anyway. I'll actually return to it someday.

al momento en el que escribo esto, escuché 25 canciones y lo Disfruté más de lo que pensé, aunque es una barbaridad 69 canciones (3 hrs de duracion) alguien puede pensar en las personas con atención pobre como yo? ah

I did a marathon in 2019. When I decided to do it, I was excited by the prospect. I was used to a usual run time but this was way above the usual. The first 10 ticked along in a bubble of enthusiasm. As the time passed I found it difficult to differentiate one mile from another. After about 30% it became a slog and I just kept my head down and chugged through. My brain only really woke up when the end was in site. In retrospect, I'm glad I did it. I'll never do it again. It was too long.

Different but I liked it!

Too long

I generally liked this. Pleasant music, good vocals, pretty clever. So long though!

This album holds up pretty good for something from 1999. I enjoyed most of the songs and the variety. I completely understand the hate for the run time but as a whole it’s a solid album for the length. I have a feeling this album is gonna screw up my Spotify recommendations because of the length.

Actually listened to this in bursts whilst I was away. Definitely haven't got the energy to listen to all 3 hours of it again today (particularly given I was travelling from 3 am UK yesterday and got home about 40 minutes ago, to start a work day!). I didn't think there were many bad songs on this - and a fair few good ones - but the concept of writing 100 (and giving up when he got to 69) doesn't particularly appeal to me. Could've been a 4 quite comfortably if it had been 19 Love Songs, but it's just too much, so 3/5.

Three decent albums fused together for no apparent reason so that listening to it is a real chore.

Didn't listen to the whole thing, but it was decent 90s crooning over guitar..

Not my cup of tea. only listened to disk 1.

I get that it's the point but there are too many songs on this record. Beautiful record to listen to in the morning BUT THERE ARE TOO MANY FUCKING SONGS ON THIS FUCKING RECORD

Massa llarg. Però les cançons m'han agradat, em veig escoltant-ho de tant en tant. Lorenzo expected rating: 5

Popped this one into Spotify and took a look at the track listing/album length as I often do and was surprised to see the album title is pulling no punches and clocks in at just under 3 hours in length. Suspected I’de give it an hour then jack it in but it’s actually pretty good and I listened to the whole thing.

Well that was too fucking long.

impressive in quantity

This is WAY longer than the prince 1999 album but feels about the same length, which is more of a statement about the prince album than this. After a while it gets kind of samey for me but I enjoyed the lyrics, which isn't often something I focus on. The simple arrangements were pretty nice sometimes as well.

'Papa was a Rodeo' es suficiente argumento para la existencia de todo este proyecto

Album 250 of 1001 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs Rating : 3 / 5 3 Hours of "silly" long songs, it seems. Interesting but that doesn't make it entertaining. I did half of it.

It's a lot of love songs. But I listened to them all. Sort of a hipster White Album. The filler is good, and some songs are great.

3 hours is too long. This guy sounds like emo Elvis, but I dug this for the most part. "Chicken with its Head Cut Off" was my favorite track, but there were several similar, "sweet and funny" songs like that.

I own this set. After many listens to all 69 Love Songs — and again today — I can confidently run the numbers: I Love 21 Love Songs I Like 13 Love Songs I Meh 27 Love Songs I Dislike 8 Love Songs

Pretty cool

3.5

This album got me thinking. What is a “song?” “Music” is somewhat easier to define; it’s an intentional manipulation of rhythm, timber, and pitch changes. But when does a melody turn into a song? Upon listening to many of these tracks, my first thought was that these were more akin to an exploration of 69 musical ideas, stretched out to 3 minutes apiece, rather than full polished songs. They felt incomplete. Many of the lyrics start with a theme but never go on a journey or provide any sense of resolution. They seem to just orbit that same central thought. At times it almost feels like one of those persuasive essays you were asked to write in school where you had your central thesis, and then each paragraph was meant to support that thesis. Similar to the lyrics, each musical idea seems to center around a core refrain, but rarely in a way that builds or releases any musical tension. The vocal performances were varied and performed by multiple members of the band. Some are more talented vocalists than others. Most of them seemed to have this “local musical theatre company” quality to them rather than anything rock and roll. With all of that being said, I found some genuine interesting things on this album. “Absolutely cuckoo” was a fun introduction. It uses a lyrical style that’s refreshing and is easy to listen to. “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunnies,” my personal favorite, was one of the closest to what my gut tells me is a complete polished song. In all, I found this a long but easy listen. I didn’t struggle through this album. However I was left with a feeling of incompleteness, like I wasn’t listening to “songs,” whatever that means.

Absolute bear! Actually 69 total songs. Style, instrumentation, singers, messages, and lengths change constantly. It has perfect songs for love in different situations but as a whole, it cannot be actively consumed in a setting. It is a full tome of various vignettes or short stories to be consulted for comfort, anger, joy, or to feel any of the other feelings of love.

ambitious? yes. a feat of arrangement and writing? yes. but man... i just feel like if you're gonna try to churn out that much music, you're gonna get a lot of tunes that are ideas as opposed to songs. i'd rather hear twenty well executed songs than 3 hours worth of cool ideas. but could i embark on this kind of project and get anywhere remotely close to this quality? absolutely not.

I appreciate the effort of this project but 69 songs that are all short are just too long. This makes this album even for a background listen too annoying after a while. The theme love is also a bit, well, overdone, innit?

Some great stuff on this, but oh my word it is just too exhausting. 33 would have been too much for one album.

Longest album ever

Brings together echoes of the Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen and at times the Beach Boys.

Klasičan stari indie pop, rock.

1st September 2023 Took 4 days to complete this. Really enjoyed it at first, liked the range of styles and the humour (shades of Beirut) but the length of time has knocked it down for me.

Dit was wel veel teveel om in 1x weg te luisteren maar ik heb toch best wel wat hele aardige goeie liedjes langs horen komen.

Flinke zit, maar best ok eigenlijk.

definitely too long

Te lang, waardoor het op den duur wel wat begint te vervelen. Terwijl het op zich niet zo'n slechte muziek is

I didn't care much for the shorter songs (not really substantial, which makes sense), and the vocals could drone on and on - you know which singer I'm talking about. But honestly? This made for pretty good background music. I don't mean to be judgmental, but sometimes music doesn't have to be super serious. That being said, entire parody albums still don't do it for me. Anyway, if it helps at all, I listened to this album over 3 listening sessions and not all at once.

Speaks to the diversity of songwriting and skill of the artists here that I was able to make it through this one without feeling fatigued. Wasn’t expecting the more country-esque instrumentation that’s scattered throughout, but aside from that I generally enjoyed what was going on with the arrangements and production. Also impressive that they put 69 songs about the same (already tortured) subject on here and not one covered a similar facet or felt repetitive - loved the exploration of both the good and twisted sides of love and how out of the mold all the takes felt. Definitely suffers a bit from quantity over quality, but overall this is an impressive piece of work and an art piece in its own right.

J’apprécie l’ampleur du projet et leur dévouement. J’ai vu le souci de la variété dans les arrangements. Certains textes sont bien ficelés, d’autres plutôt convenus (ce qui est prévisible quand on tente d’épuiser le sujet de l’amour). Cependant, je dois avouer que j’ai trouvé le tout long et que j’aurais volontiers pris un album simple des meilleures pièces plutôt que l’intégrale.

3.25

Thats a lot of songs

Sure it's witty and clever and different, but 43 or even 17.5 would have been more than enough.

Ok the average rating on this belies just how specific this album is to a certain generation of American millennials: if you were in college between 2000 and 2008 and chased anything resembling \"indie cred\" then at least one track from this album would be a staple of the mix cds you sent your crushes. Were you twee? Then you know this one. Now here's the thing: when my older sister came back from college and had this among the cds she'd burnt for me, only disc one made it to my hands. That's the first 23 songs, Absolutely Cuckoo through The Things We Did and Didn't Do. I probably never pursued discs 2 and 3 until after college, and by then I'd lost The Glow and none of the songs hit the same as those first 23. It felt like a joke: Merritt had made one amazing album and then phoned in two more, daring the listener to actually spend time with those other 46 love songs. So this is my first actual listen to all 69 love songs, and I gotta say disc 2 starts off so rocky I thought I was right. The ship rights itself and a few good songs stand out, but the presence of obnoxious filler gets more and more obvious. By the time you hit "Zebra," the joke isn't funny anymore, and it hasn't looped around to being funny again yet.

mye rart, noe kjempe bra noe sæært

I'd never heard of The Magnetic Fields before today, except that I knew that this album is second longest on this list (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Song Book is 3hrs and 15 minutes). The genre of music is chamber pop/indie pop/indie folk. It kind of sounds like Walmart brand Leonard Cohen. Stephin Merritt's bass vocals are really smooth and beautiful. The album was originally conceived as a music revue. The lead singer, Stephin Merritt was listening to a pianist interpret Stephen Sondheim songs in a gay piano bar when the idea came to him. He was familiar with Charles Ives' album: 114 Songs, but felt that 114 was too many songs, so opted to go with 69. Overall, I was impressed with the record. It suffered, of course, from overstaying its welcome, but if you can get past the length of the record, and just have it on as background music, it is great! I wouldn't want to just sit and listen to this because my attention span wouldn't allow it. For that reason, I will score this a 3. If it had been a 30-40 minute record, it 100% would have been a 4. Favourite songs: Papa Was A Rodeo, Acoustic Guitar, Kiss Me Like You Mean It, "Fido, Your Leash is Too Long", I Don't Believe In The Sun, All My Little Words, The Book of Love, You're My Only Home, "Washington, D.C.", Long-Forgotten Fairytale, The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing, "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan", Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget Least favourite songs: Absolutely Cuckoo, Reno Dakota, The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be, Punk Love, Love Is Like Jazz, I Shatter, Experimental Music Love, Blue You, Strange Eyes 3/5

Nice music, pleasant arrangements, brilliant lyrics, but ludicrously long. Didn’t make it all the way through.

a thoroughly exhausting album to listen to. depressing song after depressing song and most of them not even very good. the reason i’m giving it a 3 star rating is because i have to appreciate making a 3 hour long album of 69 love songs. every once in a while there’s a really good song too which made it kinda seem like a needle in a haystack type thing. definitely interesting how the vast majority of songs are on the sad side. but that’s what love is. right? for every happy ending, there are 50 sad endings. idk i have complicated feelings on love as a whole which made this album even more interesting to listen to.

I got to around 50 before it finally ground me down

some good some bad some meh

Ambitious but overwhelming

Predictable review alert. Gotta admire the ambition. But despite few good songs, 3 hours ( which I didn't listen to) is too much. There is a lot of meh songs.3 hour 3 stars.

This album, despite how long it was, really wasn't that bad No songs sounded the same but they weren't all different from eachother Vocals and meaning behind the lyrics were good Not an album I would come back to but it was a good listen

Boy, this was long! At least most of the songs were short. This was an interesting collection of songs. Some were pretty good, but most were just alright to me. Enjoyable, but I'm not going to come back to a lot of songs from the album. My favourite songs were Absolutely Cuckoo, No One Will Ever Love You, and I Can't Touch You Anymore.

Some key standouts. Honestly like listening to this 3 hour album way more than that Blur snoozefest.

nothing stuck out as bad. Quite a few songs stuck out as exceptional. It's really long and this was a first listen, will need more time with it.

A gruelling task to listen to in one sitting but never a boring one.

Who got time

Goed te luisteren, beetje vreemde muziek. Gaat op den duur wel wat vervelen. Toch 3 sterren voor de geinige geluidjes die af en toe te horen zijn. ***

I don't know why I decided it was a good idea to actually go along with with this and listen to the whole thing, but let it be known that it was agonizing. The music isn't bad, and lyrics were pretty interesting for the most part, but it was just too much for one go. I admire the dedication to even making this but goddamn. Fave track(s): A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off, Meaningless, I Can't Touch You Anymore

Sheesh. A massive collection of weird songs.

O duzo za duzo, bo tak jak glosi tytul oraz okladka ten potezny prawie 3 godzinny album sklada sie z 69 trakow, w luznym motywie milosnych songow, ale w takim gonszczu muzycznym mozna znalezc utwor o wszystkim i o niczym, zwlaszcza ze jest to muzyka popularna, wiadomo, ze z bardziej indyjskiej strony spektrum, ale jednak muzyka popularna, na tak poteznym wydaniu znajda sie kawalki calkowicie synthowe jak i akustyczne ballady, sluchalo sie tego dziwnie, ale dwie plyty weszly w jednej sesji i jakos nie mialem straszliwie meczacych momentow, pomimo tego, ze mialem uczucie jakbym sluchal jakiegos dumpa muzycznego, bo przewija sie na albumie az tylu artystow na wokalach, a stylistycznie utwory nastepujace po sobie staraja sie tylko zaskakiwac, panem za tym projektem byl zdecydowanie autor tekstow i samego konceptu tak dlugiego krazka Stephin Merritt, ktorego kontrybucja instrumentalna stanowi polowe brzmienia tego nagrania, pozostali czlonkowie The Magnetic Fields to Sam Davol na flecie i wiolonczelii, pani Claudia Gonson klawisze i perkusja, a takze niektore z wokali, oraz John Woo jako gitarowo bonjowe oblicze bandy, do tego dochodzi 6 muzykow studyjnych, ktory robia robote glownie woklanie, wsrod nich najwiecej trakow ma pan LD Beghtol, jeden z jego trakow tak mi przypadl do ucha, ze musialem podczas odsluchu go dodac na plejke, bo potem kopac w poszukiwaniu skarbow na takim wielkim polu byloby nieludzkim zadaniem, trak nazywa sie all my little worlds, kltory jest jedna z spokojniejszych akustycznych ballad pierwszego krazka, drugim kawalkiem dodanym na plejke jest meaningless z trzeciej czesci, ktora ma znaczaco mniej odsluchow niz dwie pierwsze, ciekawe czy az tak ciezko sie dokopac tak gleboko, czy podczas projektowania plejlisty najmocniejsze traki pan Merritt staral sie upchnac jak najwyzej, tak czy inaczej dlugo sie zbieralem do tego odsluchu, a nie byl on az tak straszny jak sie go spodziewalem po tytule 69 lovowych songow, nadal nie ma co pisac z klawiatura plujaca podwojne a, wiec podczekam az wroce naa wygnanie do starego i wiernego laptoka i open spejsow

Would have preferred maybe 29 songs, tops..

Both a good album and the high concept of a good album, there is a double album worth four stars, possibly 4.5, but to get to the magic number 69 there's just enough filler to bring the score down. Nothing quite like it in rock, and possibly the only triple album in this list.

Mycket bra låtar. Men tre timmar långt. Kom igen

I wonder how many people have actually listened to the whole thing? I was fully expecting this to be quite irritating when I first turned it on, but, I don't know... it sounds quite nice. There's some nice songs on here and there's some interesting variation. It's obviously way way too long of course and there's tons of filler. I listened to the first disc before giving up. I get the idea.

concept - 4 songs - 2-4 A best of could have been a 4

69 Love Songs is the sixth album by American indie pop band the Magnetic Fields. As the title suggests, this is a three-volume concept album containing 69 love songs. The tracks all deal with love in one form or another (including heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual relationships), and in many different genres like country, synth pop, jazz, and ballads to name a few. 69 Love Songs received widespread critical acclaim. I thought it was a fun album concept and the songs were actually pretty good too. This is an interesting album that everyone should give a chance.

Funny name. Oh it really is 69 songs? So, they're all like 30 seconds long? No? Jesus Christ. Fine. I wasn't expecting to like this, and I didn't. It felt like doing homework. Homework can be good though even if it's hard, and this felt like that. Clearly an impressive, if self-indulgent, work, but I promise I will never listen to it again. Reminded me of when my friends show me pictures of their kid and I have to see twenty exact same pictures of the kid but with their elbow at a slightly different angle. Edit this shit, please.

There are movies that come out that feel like homework. Important filmmaking accomplishments that you know you have to watch, but the runtime makes it a chore. Quick examples in my mind are THE IRISHMAN and ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (what is it with DeNiro?). Both exceptionally long movies, and great movies, but too long. Another example, BOYHOOD, which isn't as long, but feels even more like homework because it's pretty lame. This album feels like homework. Ambitious? Important? Impressive? Sure, we can use all those words here. There are even a handful of tracks that I dig. But amid 69 tracks, if there weren't at least a handful of good tracks, I'd commit arson. Either way, a handful of tracks pulled from a batch this large doesn't make it feel less like homework, and doesn't make me want to revisit it ever. I admire how absurd this is conceptually, and I'm glad to be able to say I've listened through so I never have to again. Favorite tracks: Chicken with its Head Cut Off, World Love, I Shatter, Long-Forgotten Fairytale, The Night You Can’t Remember. Album art: Reddit humor. EDIT: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger! 3/5

Decent stuff, but... it's a lot.

Having an album this long is pretty insane - I respect the ambition and didn't mind the experience. But I don't think I'll be going back to it.

I think I would of been absolutely in love with this album if I’d listened to it 20 years ago. Heard the Tom Waits influence and how it might have contributed to the sound of Jason Webley.

Got pretty boring, the songs aren’t good enough to justify the runtime. Some songs were weird, but they still managed to blend together considering the number of songs there are. Nothing really bad to say here, just not impressed. 3/5

There are some really good songs on here, but I suppose with this many songs that is just statistically likely. As a whole, it’s all over the place in terms of content, quality, and mood.

It's fine, but the album is way to long

p842. 1999. 3 stars. Well done hipster pop, but far too long for what it is. Do we really need 3 albums of this in one sitting? Don't get me wrong, there are some cracking tunes and sharp lyrics... but it definitely outstays its welcome and gets annoying after a while. A bit of judicious editing and this could have been 5 stars.

a meandering road trip with a surprisingly versatile indie rock band ruminating on all things love. many more hits than misses but it's hard not to treat listening to this as a feat of endurance 3.75/5

There are some really great tracks on here. But by God it's a long slog.

Some of it is just transcendental. Some of it is just really dumb. I admit to being daunted initially but I'm glad I got through the whole thing. The point of the experience is how it all piles up song after song. As an older person happily settled in my third marriage this album evoked much of the kaleidoscope of my own experience bit by bit, both heartbreaker and heartbroken.

This is an interesting and different album but just far too long. Felt a bit of an effort to get through pick the 12 best songs and this becomes a great album.

There is an amazing indie folk pop rock record buried in here somewhere, I really enjoy it a lot of these songs, and I really do admire the effort of making such a giant album, it could not have been an easy process for the band. I just can't in good faith give this a very high mark just because a lot of it really just feels like filler and bloat, I loved the second disc the most, and after putting all the best songs from the album onto a playlist I narrowed it down to about 35 minutes worth of amazing songs. Doesn't justify the runtime, 3.5/5

F this album. My max attention span for music on this platform peters out at 45 mins. and I begin deducting stars after an hour. Similar to Elon Musk creating companies for the sole purpose of making people talk about 'sex' (SpaceX), this band seems to have made up an painful number of 'love' songs so it could use '69' in the title. And the last time I checked, 69's are not supposed to be painful. That said, this was a unique album with some memorable songs. Like two ... of SIXTY-NINE.

Weird and long but some lyrics were quite funny.

2.5/5 I admire the idea of this project, but it’s just too much. One album of 3 hours long.. I enjoyed it more than I thought and almost finished the whole album. Some songs are quitte good, but I don’t remember the titles because there were so many. Is they just chose 16 songs this albums would be getting a higher rating. Favourite song: - Book of love

3.75

Too blimmin long

Easy listening but a bit samey and not for the impatient

Actually quite liked a lot of it but outstayed it's welcome by about 2 hours.

As nice as the number of songs is there are many songs that were kind of meh. Could have made a 20 song album that wad amazing.

Good sound, but almost mindless songwriting, short songs with one riff, and WTF is this album.

I think I managed to listen to over two thirds and I've enjoyed it. Funny, clever, catchy, thoughtful, experimental, poetic literate. So much material and ground is covered all around a theme. Good chamber pop too.huge long album. Could be better as 15 songs.

At points annoying and others some good tunes, I respect the effort and vision, but at some points felt like someone was being tortured to write another loves song.

Nice. For a compilation this long, I was not expecting to like a majority of it. There's plenty of variety here and they all have a special, unique vibe. It's really quite charming. Not something I would listen to often, but still pretty solid for what it is.

Really interesting concept, but there were too many songs that sounded like something else.

Charming, bittersweet little songs about love in all its forms. I really like the idea of this album and it was pretty delightful to listen to for the most part. Musically it's really lovely, with a rich and varied range of styles. Lyrically it's clever, sometimes humorous and surprising. Let's be clear though. Not every song worked and this album could have been significantly shorter. I was quite tired of it by the time I hit the 3rd disk. I'm ultimately not sure of the value of a project like this, if your listeners are going to dismiss the final third or forget half your songs due to the sheer volume of it. I also think the collection would had worked better if both tonally and thematically, there had been more internal structures, like building it as a progression from the brighter aspects of love to the darker ones. Here, it feels like a hodgepodge, even though all the songs are supposed to exist in relation to each other. Fave Songs: All My Little Words, Long-Forgotten Fairytale, I Shatter, Absolutely Cuckoo, Meaningless, Busby Berkeley Dreams, World Love, Nothing Matters When We're Dancing, The Way You Say Good-Night, Epitaph for My Heart, My Sentimental Melody, I Think I Need a New Heart, Asleep and Dreaming, The Book of Love, I Don't Want to Get Over You, Promises of Eternity, I Can't Touch You Anymore, Blue You

I've been looking forward to this one because I heard a few songs from it a few months ago and thought it was something I would really like. It is just so damn long! I think it might have been better to list all three volumes separately, but either way...I love the music, and I want to spend more time with this one. 3.5/5

69 песен! "I decided I'd write one hundred love songs as a way of introducing myself to the world. Then I realized how long that would be. So I settled on sixty-nine" 1999, американцы, все песни написаны лидером группы Стефином Мерритом. Баллады, кантри, поп, синти-поп, фанк. Некоторые треки: A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off, Underwear.

Ok mas mas demais

69 songs was unnecessary

This album was about 55 love songs too long. A 69 love song album is an amibitious concept, which I can respect, but unfortunatley the execution was far from perfect. This is a pretty uneven mix of songs and sounds from jazz to rock to experiemental/avant-garde. It is cool that one group can cover so much ground sonically, but as an "album" it is pretty exhausting. Luckilly none of the songs were very long, but it was hard on my brain for the vibe to keep switching every 90 to 120 seconds.

6/11/2022 - ALBUM #135 Today's Album: "69 Love Songs" by The Magnetic Fields - This album is very, VERY ambitious. Clocking in at just shy of 3 hours, this album actually features 69 different songs all relating to the topic of love. Now, that alone is a pretty insane accomplishment and it should be commended for that. It's sort of an early sort of theatre-core, where the author was inspired by early Broadway musical scores, and there are many artistic decisions here that co-inside with that like the very raw vocal production and the layered chorus vocals. The instrumentals sort of stray from this idea, but it's in favor of pretty much covering love songs of every genre. From jazz to 70s rock to new wave, this album covers the topic of love songs in a variety of genres and usually a pretty clever way. However, this ambition does come at a pretty great cost. First, this album is pretty bloated with unfinished ideas, filler interludes, underdeveloped vocal lines, and sometimes just blatantly awful performances across the entire group. For every diamond in the rough track you can find here, there are literally 20 other tracks that will underwhelm you in one way or another or just generally ruin great ideas with annoying sound effects or theater music clichés. Now full transparency, I only ended up listening to the first 2 discs (46 songs) of this project, but I think I have a pretty solid idea that this is just a really bloated record overall. Yes, there is a ton sonically that is new to me and seems pretty impressive to be packed into this long of an album, but I think there is enough in here that is actually offensive to my ears to justify a pretty low score. Overall, this is an extremely ambitious album. being probably the longest album I've ever seen, but it is pretty bloated with unfinished ideas and random interludes. Give this one a listen if you're interested, but I wouldn't be surprised if you quickly wanted to turn it off. It is definitely not great background music. Highlights: Absolutely Cuckoo, All My Little Words, Boa Constrictor, Papa Was A Rodeo Score: 5.5/10 Impressively ambitious, but bloated and underdeveloped theatre core

Indie. No está mal, pero es larguísimo.

I’ll be honest in that I cannot finish this album just because it’s so damn long. But, I actually quite enjoy the concept as well as the lyrics of the songs themselves. Minus 1 star for length.

It’s amazing how hard it is to block off 3 HOURS during a workday to listen to music. I respect the concept and overall think it’s successful, but in reality there is probably 1-2 albums of great songs, with a lot of experimentation and filler.

69! do you get it! its a sex joke! i didn't really mind the tracks i listened to, but who the fuck actually has the stamina to listen to the 4 weeks worth of music they produced. can't believe they committed to the Mega LOL that hard and produced 69 3 minute long whimsical ditties about love. that's some serious stamina.

69 songs? Nah, 3 is enough

You've got the admire the ambition here and the best bits are a 4 star album, maybe even 5, but there is just far, far too much of it. Nearly 3 hours of music was too much in 1999 so in 2022 when you're lucky to hold a listener's attention longer than the length of Tiktok video, it is just madness. Incidently I lasted 26 songs before drifting off and doing something else.

Prolific album. Lots of tracks. Short. Sweet. Pleasant

The songs are boring but the concept is awesome

Ahh this album. I split it up over a few days listening sessions to make it easier to listen to since it's a lot of the same theme. I only really knew The Book of Love before and maybe had dabbled in a few songs from it here and there. It's ambitious but in that ambition you need to back it up with solid material and there just isn't enough here. 2.5/5

My brain is split into two when this was generated. One was overjoyed at the number 69, but the other is moaning to the fact I have to listen to that many songs about a single theme. Thank god they didn't make an album called 420 weed songs. Do give it a listen though, as there are various perspectives, situations, and types of love around here. There is also thankfully a wide variety of genres and instruments used, even different members of the band and guest musicians take the spotlight on vocals. Highlight picks were Papa Was A Rodeo, The Book Of Love, Sweet-Lovin' Man, No One Will Ever Love You, Long-Forgotten Fairytale and The Death Of Ferdinand de Sassure. While I love the concept, this would be a 5 if it was condensed to half its length. That would provide enough great songs while not burning out my patience. I also feel some songs get unfairly lost in this project.

sounds like Neil Hannon which is not a bad thing

Some good songs, but way too long man

really mixed feelings here. i admire the ambition of the project and it had some really lovely tracks, (luckiest guy, need a new heart, washington dc, papa was a rodeo) but quite a few were just really not pleasant to listen to, and it's a lot to get through. around hour 2 I also noticed the songwriting style getting a little stale- like the meter and rhymes became predictable or something, but i'd imagine that would happen for any artist. 5/10

More than most other albums on the list this is self aware with regards to its status as art, which makes it difficult to score. In other words, this is like going to the Pearl Harbor Museum. It takes three hours, is sometimes boring, and is way less fun than anything else on Oahu. Still, it's worth going at least once. 6/10

69 actual songs... and only one that's decent.

It's interesting. It's inventive. I got to number seven, though, and that was enough. Considered adding, but no.

Yllättävän kuuntelukelpoista hassuttelua. Kyllä koko kolmetuntisen jaksoi kuunnella, vaikka ei mitään timangia ollutkaan. En usko että muistan yhtään biisiä ja voi olla etten koskaan tuu kuuntelemaan uudestaan, mutta silti oli ihan positiivinen kokemus.

No äh, ois tämäkin neljän tähden levy, jos ois vaan koostettu se 50 min setti. Nyt ei kyllä millään, kun varsinkin kolmoslevy tuntuu toistavan aiempaa. Monta tosi kivaa biisiä kuitenkin. Ja vaikka tuntuu laajuudessaan snadisti omahyväiseltä projektilta, niin ei se lopulta häirinnyt. Musiikki ja lyriikat jaksoivat kantaa.

This is a fascinating album in that the length is so heavy. I just don't have three hours to spend on it. I get the point behind it. I just have other things to do.

Tooooooo long

Very neutral to the whole thing, not bad, not great. Definitely long.

There are 69 songs, I'll give them that. The concept of a large volume of under produced, not-all-that-in-key songs really doesn't do it for me. I am struggling to find the appeal, and I lose respect for the artistic process with every new song. Editing, refinement and actual emotions are things I value much more than hearing an exposé of the process. I enjoy Peter Gabriel's version of The Book of Love, the original doesn't stand out from the sea of tracks. I enjoyed The One You Really Love, Papa Was a Rodeo, Love is Like a Bottle of Gin, and Zebra but not enough to want to listen again. Things get a little weird on the third disc (Experimental Music Love, For We Are the King of the Boudoir, Xylophone Track), but it's too little, too late. I'm bored, I'm tired, and my Spotify algorithm is confused.

Sure, here's a three-hour concept album, you have a day to listen to it. But it does what it says on the box.

Not enjoyable

Only listened to the first disc - couldn't stomach 3 hours of it. Might go down after the first disc, so 3 is perhaps generous. I did like what I heard though.

Ambitious but bloated. It's impossible to recall any given song when there's another 68 on the album with it

So I definitely didn't listen to all of this. I listened to 32 of them and that simply has to suffice. While I do applaud the ambition of this project, I definitely feel like it's misguided. It just doesn't seem close to good enough in its execution. There are good reasons bands normally don't release albums this size. It's because albums are just way better with fewer songs that are all high quality. Just select the 15 best out of these 69 songs and you'd probably end up with a great record. There are a couple of gems on here. It's simply not worth wading through the chaff to get to them though.

Wow

Nice

7/10

Well, there's nearly 3 hours that flew by. Quirky and entertaining; lyrically interesting.

The concept is compelling. The variety is impressive. The performances are committed. The album is long.

Yeah that sure was 69 songs. If finding this album resulted from a google search of the term "love songs" because you couldn't remember the precise name of McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" or you were looking for a good song to play at a wedding, you will soon conclude that you knocked at the wrong door. I like the plethora of instruments. including the washboard, the gong, the marxophone and. of course, the always popular spirit chaser. The many different instruments and lead vocalists keep things from getting too monotonous. Kinda critical for an album that's three hours. What I like most is the wry sense of humour. The final song, Zebra, is a great example of this.

This is an ambitious project with a sense of humor and some good songs. It was wise to bring in a few other vocalists and to change up the genres, but still you get Steven Merritt singing for over 2 hours, which is a bit much.

Rating: 5/10

this one took a really long time to get through...in part because i was busy, in part because it was long (as suggested by the name), and in part because i wasn't sooooper motivated to keep coming back to it. overall, this wasn't bad. his vocal range is impressive, and what he does with it is fun. and i definitely appreciate the idea of doing this as an art piece...but, man, was it a lot to get through for something i didn't absolutely love.

Crikey that was long. My tendency to overcommit won out, and I’m pleased I stuck with it, as this band was completely new to me (will be checking out their shorter efforts). Some beautiful songs but also some forgettable fillers, especially as the album went on. He has a great voice. Particularly liked Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing, Grand Canyon and I Don’t Want To Get Over You.

There’s a level to which this album is endearing, but after a while it becomes just hard to follow despite the fact that the songs are short, simple, and catchy. I’m impressed with the sheer scale of this album and it was clearly a labor of love but at almost three hours, it feels self-indulgent

Canciones con un estilo preferentemente relajado y pausado, que se deja escuchar. Sin aportar nada especial. Varios cortes con el mismo estilo y temática. Sin nada especial por el que destaque

69. Nice. 3 Discs. 2 hours and 45 minutes long. Not so nice. It feels like a Gimmick at points. but like, it's fairly decent. it's just a pretty extreme undertaking lol. Like there isn't very much of a chance I can handle this whole thing in single listening period. So it's taken two different sit downs. It's pretty alright. I didn't hate it.

I really like this album and most of the songs on it, but having 69 songs requires removing a star.

This is a generous 3, based on some of the songs being really good - and I didn't make it to the end. But there's no excuse for making the listener do the job of editing your record down to size. Save the crappy ~55 tracks for b-sides and special editions.

made it halfway. would have been a 2 had it not been for ambition and scale.

As everyone mentions, there is some filler as there are 69 songs... so why didn't they just cut the filler? I guess they weren't making an album for people who insist on listening to a different album every day! Anyhow, 34 songs in and it's not bad. Can't give it a full review as I can't set aside the time to listen properly. But as I'm dropping in and out it is actually ok in places. It's just that 69 songs of the same band in a row is getting a bit boring, even though they're mixing up the style a bit.

I Don't Want to Get Over You, Nothing Matters When We're Dancing, The Book of Love, When My Boy Walks Down the Street, No One Will Ever Love You, Papa Was a Rodeo, Epitaph for My Heart

All my little words is good, otherwise sounds like sappy generic alternative/college/ Morrisey inspired music. Actually I was too harsh some of the songs are worth a listen

wtf

I had a lot of fun with this album, I like the idea of an album celebrating a certain kind of song

Seriously? 2 hours of love songs? Bleh

Didn't love it. Very weird, and occasionally enjoyable, but overall, not my thing

Funny

Good songs, a tad long

Well, it's certainly a lot of effort and work for a concept like this. I feel like with such a huge list of entries songs are bound to blend together or feel under developed. Magnetic Fields' style also is likely not my bag in general, but there are some real gems to pick out of this selection. Favorite Song: Book of Love

For a three hour album that IMO has only about 3-4 good songs, this was a let down. True, at times there’s witty charisma and at others there’s raw poignant catharses, but it was just way too long for me to enjoy. Maybe I’ll think differently listening to this when going through my next break up.

achei gostosinho de ouvir. Algumas eram mais ou menos

An ambitious effort to have 69 actual love songs in an album, but as with anything less can be more. In this case, it would be more quality and less bloat. Some of these songs are genuinely good, but given the presentation of them in a long list, it's hard for any one to stand out among the crowd.

There were some pretty good songs on here. Honestly, it was way too long and I just got burnt out halfway through.

suena como que pudieron sacar 3-4 discos de este y hacerlos más coherentes, pero también suena como que llevas tres horas escuchando mucho de lo mismo (?)

too long

nice Saved: I Think I Need a New Heart, No One Will Ever Love You, Queen of the Savages

Kinda like it. Men 69 är ganska många låtar så vi får se... The book of love och parades go by är rätt bra. Det är MYCKET konstigt tho. Ganska nice lyssning overall, hade kanske blivit 4 om den inte va så lång nu blir det 3/5 My sentimental melody No one Will ever love you Washington DC All my little words

Smooth.

Aikamoinen pläjäys. Kahteen kertaan kuuntelin läpi osissa. Biisit oli sinänsä ihan hyviä, mutta paketti vähän liian tuhti. Matkan varrella oli kyllä vaihtelua, eka levy toi mieleen Belle & Sebastianin, toisella levyllä oli ehkä vähän kokeellisempaa ja ehkä konemaisempaakin settiä. Kolmas levy tuntui taas akustisemmalta ja levyn loppupuolella vähän Yann Tiersenmäistä menoa. Mikähän tässä on ollut ideana, että on pitänyt tehdä tällainen megalevy? Vähän leikittelin myös ajatuksella, että tällaistakohan se on tuottajilla ja levy-yhtiön muilla duunareilla, kun bändillä on se 69 biisiaihiota, joista pitäisi kasata timanttinen levy. En kuitenkaan jaksanut alkaa kelailemaan ja analysoimaan että mitkä biisit poimisin ja mihin järjestykseen laittaisin. Ehkä sitten joskus.

interesting. Didn't end up listening to all of it because it is like 4 cds long

This is the longest album that I already listened entirely. It's hard to evaluate it because it has almost all song styles and possibilities for an English love song. a kind of repetitive album, but it's not the worst thing ever, just an "ok" album with an ambitious idea behind it. Ambitious albums are almost always a good idea, but this one is not one of the best-executed ones.

Maemia que largo es esto ;)

Some good jams, a little long

had never heard of this group before. it was a good listen.

The album that could have been. I liked the sound but had it been a reasonable run time, it would have had more of my attention.

I like the idea, but not necessarily the execution.

I got confused and thought this was "The Magnetic Zeroes" so I was expecting that ONE song. Oh boy, these lyrics are a bit much. The singing is a bit too saccharine to me, but that's my bitter heart. Ugh, do I wanna listen to this for 3 hours though? I am gonna skip to "The Book of Love" which is their "hit" and see if I like it. Eh, not really. I am bailing on this. Also funny their 2020 album is called "Quickies" and is 47 min long, ha. I am not opposed to the length of the album if I enjoyed it... but it's just there. 2.5 to... 3. But just barely. I wouldn't be offended if it's on, but I would prob never choose to listen to it. Could work well for background music.

I stopped about half way through the 69 love songs, cause they’re all just chill 90s love songs. Fine, but not memorable.

Omituinen konseptilevy normaalisti kovasti arvostamaltani yhtyeeltä. En ole koskaan oikein päässyt tähän sisälle kestosta johtuen. Samaa ongelmaa oli nytkin havaittavissa. Parhaat kappaleet kyllä jää mieleen, mutta turhaa täytemateriaalia on aivan liikaa. Parhaat 15 kappaletta valikoimalla tämä olisi erinomainen levy, nyt vaan keskinkertainen. Jatkossakin keskityn muihin Magnetic Fieldsin levyihin.

This is a very long album. I liked the song poppa was a rodeo. There are many outrageous lyrics that require you to pay close attention. Other than that probably pretty average for this list.

2 hr 45 min! Only listened to disc 1, but the lyrics are charming

Very impressive and a few good tunes in there but 3 hours becomes a bit of a chore

Love songs

3 timer langt album! Det er simpelthen for mange sange Flere af dem er gode og han synger udmærket. Men Come on - kill your darlings!

Odd so far nice-ish first disk is ok relaxation music, kinda Disk 1 was better than 2 It's fine really. 3

Dude, the songs are good,but 69???? SIXTY NINE??? By the time I finished this I was soo fed up. 6.5/10 F. T. : When my Boy Walks Down the Street

Ambitious

Here's another band that should not have a single album in any Top 1001 list. They're dumb and weird and so eclectic that they're not enjoyable nor can you take them seriously. I was absolutely shocked they had that many listens to this shit collection of songs that all feel like rough drafts. His voice is ridiculous ("I Don't Believe In The Sun") and feels like a Saturday Night Live skit ("All My Little Words" 24m listens?!?! or "The Cactus Where...") or a movie from the 50's you stumble across high on a Friday night and can't turn away. Then she chimes in and sounds like open mic night ("Reno Dakota", "Come Back from SF") at the local bar in a small midwest town. The atrocious "The Book Of Love" has 58M listens. Who are these people who'd listen to this and want to hear it a second time?! I have never met them. Only partly entertaining track: "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits". As mentioned, just not enjoyable. They're not as clever as they must think they are. I truly didn't enjoy even a minute of it. I am utterly baffled. That's 69 shitty songs. What record exec signed off on this one? WTF does this album provide that should be considered T1001 worthy and must-hear-before-I-die?!? I didn't make it past song 23. Awful choice. 2 stars and that's honestly not how I really feel about it.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. I don't think he had enough ideas for 69 different love songs, but he decided he wanted to do a love song album with 69 songs anyway. Some of the songs were fairly good and I enjoyed them, but they were few and far between. Pick your favorite dozen and run with that instead. Maybe that would actually be nice.

Super mid

The vocals were often atrocious. This is a novelty, but not essential listening. A list of more essential albums to the canon of Western popular music released in 1999: Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile Reba McEntire - So Good Together Rage Against the Machine - Los Angeles

Interesting concept. While the songs were listenable, I think the length of this album makes it unapproachable. I would be fine never hearing this album again.

The Divine Comedy and Bonzo dog band meets George Formby with a deeper voice. Instant throwaway catchy ditties. But ultimately vapid and devoid of substance. "The book of love is long and boring" Couldn't agree more. Worse tracks 'love is like jazz'. I made it to 31.

No private session. Predictable lyrics because they had to rhyme. This album was way too long but how else would they get 69 songs to make their stupid sophomoric joke? Couple of notes: 1. Quality is better than quantity 2. Stephin's songs are better when someone else is singing them. I actually made it through this epic play of crap, so I can't give it one, but I am so done with it.

i ain't reading all that i'm happy for u tho or sorry that happened. Love is like jazzin jälkeen tajusin että biisit on oikeestaan. Hyvin pinnallisia.

A fairly ludicrous concept during which someone needed to intervene - at least he didn’t go ahead with the original notion of 100 songs and merely let it drag out for three hours. There are plenty of ideas and some nice tunes but equally a lot of half-finished sketches. Needless to say it’s spread pretty thin - as, by the end, is your patience.

Didn’t mind how quirky this was, but TWO HOURS AND FIFTY TWO MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

69 songs? How much time do you think I have?

some pretty good some pretty bad mostly forgettable 3 fucking hours long

I think if this album were a reasonable length it could be a 3 or a 4 but there's just so much thats not quite good enough to be memorable. Definitely has some redeeming qualities but my favorite part of this album has probably been reading the reviews about it not the actual songs. probably could have cut this thing in half and I wouldn't have missed it

Waayyyyyy to long to listen to. Listened to a few songs and thought it was ok but its just not my taste

This was quirky and kitschy. Runs long, really long. It would be an interesting experiment to put this on very low in the background of a chill dinner party or cocktail party and just see what kind of comments and conversations it would spark.

I listened to the first five tracks to get an idea of the spirit of the songs. And admittedly they were not terrible. In fact, they were kinda quirky with unique instrumentation and reminded me at times of other artists like Jonathan Richman or Belle & Sebastian. But c’mon…69 songs. No one has time to listen to that many.

I made it through like three tracks and just couldn’t fathom holding on for 66 more. Some ok tracks but cmon man. 2/5

About 61 too many, honestly. Most of the songs are quite boring and blend together, and many of the lyrics are cheesy and cringeworthy. The female vocalist is more pleasing to my ears than the man, but she is used disappointingly sparingly. There is some genre variation, but while that makes this less oppressively dull then it could be, it adds to the overall feeling of the album being sloppy and lacking artistic direction.

I bought this when it came out and never really worked for me. Still doesn’t

I've mentioned this before, but the slacker music needs to feel effortless and require technical expertise. These songs, particularly on the lyrics, were seemingly thrown together in a jam session to take them from Song 63 to 64. Condense this down to the tightest 13 songs and reissue pls. Otherwise, the sweetness and fun melodies rises this to a ceiling of 3, and I'm rounding down because too many of the songs were childishly simple

Sixty-nine love songs at nearly 3 hours of music and this thing doesn’t even have the best love song by The Magnetic Fields, Andrew in Drag. Look, I get that commitment to the bit is an important part of comedy, but sometimes a commitment needs to be broken.

Really commendable for how long this is, can't give it a 3 though it's 3 hours

man these are....... these are some love songs........zzzzzz

After the third day clocking in at the "Listening to 69 Love Songs" factory I was ready to no-notice quit. Should not be included on this list.

Really? Love songs, 69? Are they 13? Speaking of 13, that's about the number of songs they should've put on an album

It's not bad but it's pretty samey and too damn long.

Great concept album. Brazo to the songwriter. Two day journey with this one and too much for me. Some highs and many repetitive.

This sounds like a bunch of driveling, cheap, rhyming pursuitism written on a bet. Really awful.

655/1001 2026.07.10

While it is impressive to have written so many songs, there is an issue of quality versus quantity. Some of these are great, others less so. It gets tiring after a while. More a gimmick than a true accomplshment.

Sadly, I'm not a fan. I stuck it out and listened to the entire two hours and fifty-two minutes, but it didn't change my mind. It isn't the worst thing I've ever listened to, but I can't say that I enjoyed it.

I listened to 3 of the 69 songs. It's... okay. But most of them are very on the nose. Not a big fan of these.

3 heures ? Pardon, 3 heures ? Donc apparemment, quelqu'un chez les Magnetic Fields s'est dit que ce qui manquait à la chanson populaire, c'était des chansons d'amour. Et s'il a renoncé au projet fort pertinent de faire un album avec 100 chansons d'amour, il a tout de même décidé d'en faire 69, parce que pourquoi ne pas rajouter une petite couche d'humour bien beauf par-dessus, hein ? Déjà, le concept est pas fou. Si on sortait un album intitulé 10 avec 10 chansons d'amour, personne trouverait ça fou. Monter à 69, ça ne rend pas le complexe plus intéressant, c'est la même chose en plus long. Bon, l'avantage, c'est que le groupe parvient un peu à varier musicalement. Il se passe pas mal de choses différentes, certains titres sont même un peu expérimentaux. Mais soyons sérieux. Trois heures du même groupe qui fait 69 chansons sur le même sujet déjà pas ultra-intéressant, ça devient hyper lassant. Au bout du premier disque, je trouvais ça sympathique. Au bout du deuxième, ça devenait lassant. Au bout du troisième, ça devenait carrément crispant. Le fait est que le groupe n'a pas assez de choses à dire pour justifier un album de trois heures. Chaque titre pris individuellement est sympathique et un album sans prétention de 10-15 chansons auraient eu droit à son petit 3. Mais là, c'était beaucoup trop gonflant, alors ça sera un 2 parce qu'il faut arrêter de déconner, à un moment.

I listened to Disc 1 yesterday morning Disc 2 Yesterday afternoon Disc 3 today morning... Why not putting 6 Songs on Disc1 and 9 Tracks on Disc2. Was 69 songs really necessary??? there were some great, good and decent songs, but so much bs tooooo (2.5/5.0)

Alussa olin että ok kyllähän tää menee mutta sitte kuuntelin tätä kolme tuntia ja olin että haha ei. Ainoa asia mitä kirjotin ylös kuunnellessa oli että Blue you oli City of Stars. Arvostan ja arvostin sitä miten anteeksipyytämättömän queerit lyriikat oli mutta muuten jätti kyllä kylmäksi. Ois ollu 3 jos ois kestäny tunnin.

Tavallaan tykkään tällaisesta pöljäilystä että ”oispa hauska idea että…” ja sit vaan tehään, mut tähän hetkeen tää oli vähän liikaa. Ekan levyn perusteella musa oli mieleen ja kivoja juttuja, mut jotenkin sit uuvuin kuitenkin massan alle 🥲

Ugh, 2 hours and 45 minutes!!!? Hell no. I listened to about a half hour. That's enough thank you. Some of them were funny, but I can't listen to the whole thing. 2 stars

A little slow and repetitive, I get it but I didn’t exactly enjoy it. A little monotonous.

Any album this long is in my eyes, quite frankly, taking the absolute piss. An album that long better be perfect from start to finish, and this one definitely is not. The soft, folk/indie/pop vibes are by no means bad to listen to and there are plenty of strong songs, but it's so frustrating when an album feels like this much of a slog to listen to. Ultimately it becomes a bloated mesh of the good and the bland, and should never have been allowed to be this long.

Some ideas are just bad ideas, and you should have people around you willing to tell you that. Making a 69-song album is one of those bad ideas. Imagine if they had taken the dozen or so genuinely above-average songs on here and turned them into a tight 12-15 track album. That might have earned its place on this list because of the music itself, instead of because it was an unusual concept. Instead, you're burying the good material under a mountain of average and below-average songs. By the time you get to the end, the quality tracks don't feel special anymore because you've had to wade through so much filler to find them. Sometimes less really is more, and 69 Love Songs is a perfect example of that.

Well, I listened to the whole thing. It took about a fifth of my waking hours, but I did it. And it was largely not worth it. There’s a handful of truly great tracks in here. Then there’s tons ranging from middling to boring. And then some songs that are genuinely unpleasant. There’s definitely a good album in here, but the quantity not quality approach really obfuscated that. I know that’s kind of what they were shooting for, and it’s mildly impressive to crank out that many passable songs in one go. In so many different genres and styles to boot. Overall, an album cut down to 40 minutes would’ve been infinitely preferable to this. Still keep the title 69 songs but only put 10 on there. It’ll be ironic or something. Hipsters love that shit.

69 ways to waste some time. (By no means the worst.)

2 stars for the sex joke

Malo, largo, aburrido