Reviews (page 8 of 9)
So long, but decent
Jeg gjorde det!! Knap 3 timer er desværre for langt, men der var da nogle meget gode indimellem
Self indulgent shit. There is no reason for this to be here. This is trash. All the hours. Nothing of value.
No jes on konsepti, mutta kuka oikeesti kuuntelee 69 biisiä, jotka on tehty vain tekemisen takia? Vitsikkäät tarinat vanhenee jo 30 min kohdalla
Kun biisinteosta tulee tékhne.
One listen, two people, three sittings. Uncounted harmonizations, laughs. Five stars. All that to say context is important, signposted by the title up front: Fair enough. The conceit is ridiculous, but absolutely carried. Be prepared for a healthy set of cuts with terrible production, switches-of-vocalist that make no sense. But the concept somehow achieves narrative, tenuous as it clearly is.
No album should ever be this long
Some key standouts. Honestly like listening to this 3 hour album way more than that Blur snoozefest.
Agree with the takes - too much to listen to at once, but brilliant regardless of where you jump in.
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.
Robert Pollard is just about the only human on earth who could put out a 69 song album that might keep my interest. Stephin Merritt, talented as he is - and I mean that - is no Bob Pollard (for me, at least). Also, Pollard’s songs, both solo and with Guided By Voices, tend to be in the minute and half to two and half minute range, which would make a 69 song record a lot more manageable. Since I made very little effort to listen to all 69 songs here, and both 6 and 9 are divisible by 3, I’m giving 69 love songs 3 stars, which I think is the fairest way to do things.
Got old quick. 69 tracks is 60 too many
Wow I love it. This is so so much music. It’s a labor of love, an indie magnum opus. There are so many songs, so many good ones, so many mediocre ones too, but still just so much. It’s like the unabridged version of The Little Engine that Could. It just keeps chugging along. Probably 5 classics, 10 great ones, and another dozen that are really enjoyable. I don’t know what to do with this, but I’ve got it on repeat.
Love it! 5/5
Ok
Meh
Conceptalbum van The Magnetic Fields. Oorspronkelijk bedacht als een revue en bestaat uit 69 liefdesliedjes in allerlei genres en stijlen. Origineel, divers en de meeste nummers zijn leuk. leukste nummer: All My Little Words Frontman Stephin Merritt kwam met het idee in een pianobar. Hij wilde eerst gaan voor 100 nummers maar dat vond hij te veel; 69 was beter te behappen.
I get the concept but 3 hours of this crap. Come on. I thought this was a joke. The only joke was on me for listening to this crap. Never need to hear this again. 1/5
This album is just full of bangers that can touch the listeners heart
Yes, it's long (that's what she said!), but it's good (she said that also!). I have fallen in love with this album over the past couple years. Each song is pretty special to me. Standouts: just the first 69 songs! Rating: 5/5
Really good, really long, weird mix of genres
A gruelling task to listen to in one sitting but never a boring one.
This got old after 40 minutes - I pity the fool who sat through all 3 hours0
Who got time
Clocking in at nearly three hours total, I thought I would need a break. The variety of it all kept me invested. There is a lot of distinct indie charm and New York life mashed into these songs. It is impressive how many genres and styles this album goes through and how many different views of love are presented in these "Love Songs" A lot of it doesn't quite reach that complex level of songwriting, but there's a lot of depth in the lyricism. I think its' concept is fun and that it realistically is more of a Revue than a consistent album. It comes off more silly than profound at times, but I think that's the point. A wild album to put together and record. I ended up liking this better than I thought
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. ***
Nope. 3 hours? Hard no. I couldn’t even manage through 3 songs. Trash.
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
Quirky - hard to assign to a particular genre; some tracks are like C&W performed by Lou Reed. Some tracks feel a bit pretentious.
Nothing about this was enjoyable. Deserves a zero. Ridiculous that this is on the list.
an album of bland indie love songs would generally be inoffensive enough to earn a 2, but the three hour run time makes this a crime against humanity
You think I’m going to listen to 69 songs?
Absolute shite
I ain’t listening to all that
Wymiękłem w połowie pierwszej płyty
This was rough to make it all the way through
J'y allais vraiment de reculons, finalement j'ai vraiment aimé ça. Il y a eu une passe vers la fin du premier tier de l'album où je commençais à me tanner, mais pas longtemps après ça a repris et ça n'a jamais été ennuyant. Les styles varient tellement d'une pièce à l'autre que ça garde ça intéressant. J'ai vraiment aimé le style de paroles simpliste mais efficace et souvent clairement ironique. Définitivement à réécouter. Trop de bonnes pièces pour ne pas le faire. 8/10
Volume 1 personal highlights: "All My Little Words", "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits", "The One You Really Love", "The Book of Love" V2 HL: "Papa Was a Rodeo", "Kiss Me Like You Mean It", "The Sun Goes Down...", "Time Enough for Rocking...", "Promises of Eternity", "Abigail" V3 HL: "I'm Sorry I Love You", "Bitter Tears", "Yeah! Oh Yeah!", "Blue You" (Vol 2 out of 3 was my favourite) The idea to listen to one volume a day came to me about 3 songs in, because I figured I'd get angry after listening to this for three hours straight. As I learned, my tolerance to 69 Love Songs was higher than I expected, They cast their net wide, so much that hardly anyone's going to like every track here. Right? Plus, my love of the White Album has taught me that even the greatest works are allowed to have a little hot garbage mixed in. Also, finding out Lemony Snicket laid down some accordion was a rush. Half expected to read Kenneth Oppel played the flute or something March 20-23, 2023
Heureusement que je n'avais rien d'autre à faire que d'exercer ma profession pendant l'écoute de cet album sinon je l'aurais trouvé interminable. On est tout simplement pris en otage pour une durée de 2h52 à écouter 69 ballades de post-dépucelage-indie contoctées par l'affreux Robert.
Ce qui ne fait pas l'ombre d'un doute, c'est que cet album était affreusement long. Il rejoint ainsi The Gershwin Book dans la prestigieux caste des 1001 albums à écouter avant de mourir si vous avez beaucoup de temps.
This got funnier as it went on (and yes I listened to all of it). I can't say I'll need to listen to this again and do feel like this guy is punking us a bit.
An I being fucking punked?
I listened to the entire album spread over several days and really enjoyed it! A cool project and I like the variety of tunes and voices.
I listened to the entire album over a couple days. There are some good songs on here but they are sandwiched between a bunch of mediocre songs. The Washington DC song is something else. If this was cut down to 15 songs it could have been a great album.
I love Book of Love. But this whole thing is a little weird.
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..
Too long.
2/5. I am only going to listen to this album once. Sure there are some good songs but this is insane. Like, if this was a band that tried wildly different genres it could super enjoyable but I can’t tell 20 songs from each other. Not a 1 for the ambition.
I was so sure I would have hate this. Of course it is impossible to keep a constant good quality for such a long time, but this songs are terribly different one from the other, and that's already incredible. But I've gotta say that I've enjoyed most of the tracks anyway, listening to the whole thing in one session might be exhausting, but I discovered that any random pick drove me to a good place. So, most of them are actually good, some bored me out, but all of them had that genuine mood of an embarassed first love. Good stuff
Are we really doing this? Yes, we're doing this.. let's go! 1. Absolutely Cuckoo - Lighthearted start, kinda jingly-jangly, but not really getting a love song vibe from this. Hopefully this is just like the prologue. 2. I Don't Believe in the Sun - Kinda depressing, quite a shift from the previous track, but much prettier and a more romantic vibe. 3. All My Little Words - Cheesy. I suppose with an assortment of 69 love songs, there's bound to be some cheese. But this is not good cheese, this is processed cheese left out in the sun too long and even ants don't want to touch it. 4. A Chicken With It's Head Cut Off - Adult contemporary with some country vibes. If you like your love songs with a healthy dose of cliches, this is the one. 5. Reno Dakota - OK, the genre shifts continue. We got a new singer, and a fun country/cabaret kinda vibe. Song was too short though. 6. I Don't Want to Get Over You - I guess depressing breakup songs also fall under the umbrella of "love songs". I'm not sure if this guy is just bad at writing poetry or is just trying to be really tongue in cheek but, damn, the song finished before I could finish my thought.. ok, next one, next one... 7. Come Back From San Francisco - I like the female singer's voice better from this group. Wistful, pretty song. 8. The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side - Meh, generic and kinda dated this one. Also cringy lyrics. 9. Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits - Was worried this was gonna be some weird furry fetish thing, but this guy just meant "fuck like rabbits". Fair game. 10. The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be - The sockets where my eyes should be sit empty, as my eyeballs have rolled too far back into my head. 11. I Think I Need a New Heart - Dude, what is with the wailing? Sounds like a poorly built shed trying not to fall apart during a wind storm. 12. The Book of Love - "The book of love is long is boring" Ah, I see we found the inspiration for this album. 13. Fido, Your Leash is Too Long - This song is kinda neat, but ruined by this guy's blaze vocals. 14. How Fucking Romantic - What the fuck was that? 15. The One You Really Love - I swear I heard this one already. Bring back the female singer please. 16. Punk Love - Uhmm... out of nowhere with this one. But my dudes, you can't just make a sloppy, shitty song and slap the word 'punk' on it and call it a day, that's not how this works. 17. Parades Go By - Song went by, barely noticed it was finished. 18. Boa Constrictor - These lyrics though. Damn. A five year olds idea of a love song. 19 A Pretty Girl Is Like - A violent crime is sublime if you do it right? What the fuck is this guy on about? A pretty girl is not like any of the things you said... hold on.. shit, the song's over. 20. My Sentimental Melody - I like the accordion. 21. Nothing Matters When We're Dancing - OK, I can deal with this one. Throw 69 turds at the wall, some are gonna stick. 22. Sweet-Lovin' Man - I finally realized what this album has been missing this whole time, and this song gave it to me! Cowbell! More cowbell! More cowbell! 23. The Things We Did and Didn't Do - Snooze-fest. 1/3 of the way in, gonna have to take a break here and recharge the ol' batteries. 24. I'm back. 28 seconds of roses weren't long enough to form an opinion. 25. Love Is Like Jazz - Thematically this is reminiscent of "A Pretty Girl is Like" and also "Punk Love". In that they somehow manage to completely miss the mark with ridiculous analogies, insult a genre of music they're woefully incompetent at and embarrass themselves with more lazy songwriting. 26. When My Boy Walks Down the Street - OK cool, a token gay love song, it's alright. 27. Time Enough for Rocking When Were Old - A decent Johnny Cash impersonation. 28. Very Funny - Sounds like something taken out of a Disney movie. Fine I suppose. 29. Grand Canyon - Back on the country western wagon. Predictable and bland. 30. No One Will Ever Love You - Very nice guitar tone on here. Vocals pretty good. Sounds like it could work well for a pre-climax portion of a movie. 31. If You Don't Cry - The genre parade continues with some new-wave type electronica. Real jack-of-all-trades master of none vibes from this band. "If you don't cry, you don't feel it deep enough", I hear ya sister! 32. You're My Only Home - If the kid who always slept in class being forced to read from the class novel in 5th grade English class had a sound... 33. Crazy for You But Not That Crazy - BARF 34. My Only Friend - Now THIS is a love song. Why dilute a gem like this, with so much shit? 35. Promises of Eternity - After a very decent song, we get back into the slog. A microcosm of this entire 1001 album project. And yet, we soldier on, in search of the next rose growing out of a pile of manure. 36. World Love - I guess they incorporated a generic "world music" type beat to round out the genre hodgepodge. Lame. 37. Washington, D.C. - Every city has a song that immortalizes it. Don't know if Washington, D.C. has one, but this certainly ain't it. 38. Long-Forgotten Fairytale - I tuned it out. Forgive me. We're 38 songs deep here. I'm trying. 39. Kiss Me Like You Mean It - Sounds like she's singing to Jesus. I'll take a kiss from Jesus. But he better mean it. 40. Papa Was a Rodeo - Faux Johnny Cash is back. I'd rather have the real thing, thank you very much. 41. Epitaph for My Heart - Exactly the kind of lyrics you would expect from someone who thinks a love song album consisting of 69 disjointed, unfinished songs is a good idea. 42. Asleep and Dreaming - Nice, a lullaby. It almost worked too. 43. The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing - Lazy, lazy electro-pop. 44. The Way You Say Good-Night - This is one for the B-sides compilation guys. 45. Abigail, Belle of Kilronan - Holy smokes, headphone alert!!! The panning on here is really painful to listen to. You've been warned. 46. I Shatter - An attempt at a Kraftwerk type of love song this time? Find something you're good at and stick to that boys. 47. Underwear - Eeeh.. could have been something.. worthwhile, just sounds unfinished and unpolished, like much of this collection. 48. It's a Crime - The electronic bend continues. Maybe these songs should have been arranged by genre. Anyway, I've already put in more effort into this review than these guys did into writing this song. 49. Busby Berkeley Dreams - Not bad. If you do decide to run the gauntlet on this album, this track is one of a few worth your time. 50. I'm Sorry I Love You - Nice guitar riff to start, but it lacks a much needed change up or some sort of variation. All these songs are just so one-dimensional. 51. Acoustic Guitar - Y'all are really running out of ideas huh? 52. The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure - He'll be missed I'm sure. "I don't know anything about love". 52 love songs in, this is the most honest thing you've said. 53. Love in the Shadows - Another one I tuned out. 54. Bitter Tears - Generic country is back on the menu. 55. Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget - When I saw the title, it had me worried, and my instinct was right. After murdering punk, jazz, electronica, krautrock, and country, these maniacs set their sights on more obscure victims, this time being Irish folk. R.I.P. Irish folk. 56. Yeah! Oh, Yeah! - Very, very bad song. Like one of the worst so far. And that's saying something. 57. Experimental Music Love - Yep, this is what phoning it in sounds like. 58. Meaningless - These guys are having as hard a time finishing making this album as I am finishing listening to it. Hang in there guys, we're in the home stretch. 59. Love is Like a Bottle of Gin - Oh, so it's not like jazz anymore? Or is it both? It's like a bottle of gin and jazz? Maybe a lit cigar too? Leonard Cohen called, he wants his corny shtick back. 60. Queen of the Savages - This is just filler to get to 69, isn't it? Y'all must have really been regretting this idea by this point. But you can't stop now. I can't stop now. What's next? 61. Blue You - This is probably the groups best sound. If they stick to just this aesthetic, there'd be a decent album underneath all this. 62. I Can't Touch You Anymore - Another one-note song. Would it kill y'all to write some melodic variations once in a while? 63. Two Kinds of People - A mercifully brief psalm. 64. How to Say Goodbye - I wonder if they play all 69 songs live at their concerts. I wonder if the singer's monotonous voice is his way of conserving his stamina to go 69 songs deep. Ahh fuck it, who cares? Not the singer of this song, that's for sure. 65. The Night You Can't Remember - OK, kind of a clever concept for a song. Or a pub shanty. Whatever, the song works, the singer sucks. Let's move on. 66. For We Are the King of the Boudoir - It's the royal we, you see. 67. Strange Eyes - I wonder how many people made it this far. 68. Xylophone Track - No self-respecting collection of love songs should be without at least one track, highlighting the most romantic instruments of them all. Although I'm not sure I can even hear the xylophone on here. The mental image of the singer playing his rib-cage like a xylophone partially makes up for it. 69. Zebra - Here it is, the final song. The finish line. Should I have been expecting this to be some redeeming finale, a reward for having endured this herculean endeavor? No, we end the same way the album has been going all along, with a solid, emphatic, "meh"! These guys clearly decided to try and achieve fame by way of quantity over quality. Is there a good collection of love songs in here? Yes, there is. Are there 69 songs worth? Most certainly not. Would an album of say 13 of the best of these songs earn these guys any notoriety? Most likely not. As for me, I'll chalk this up to a worthy but misguided attempt, and award myself two ice cubes, not to cool down my loins, but my wrists, much needed after typing up this summary and hopefully avoiding carpo-tunnel in the process. 🧊🧊
Fun album and with 69 tracks I thought it would be difficult to choose favourites but narrowed it down to Come Back From San Francisco, I Think I Need a New Heart, and Love Is Like Jazz.
I've owned this digitally for ages, but that means it's one loooong list of tracks rather than 3 discrete discs, so obviously I've heard disc 1 WAY more than the others. If I was rating disc 1 alone it would be an automatic 5, but I wasn't sure the quality held up over the other discs. I carved out enough time to give the whole thing 2 play throughs, and I reckon discs 2 and 3 hold up well! Love the exploration of styles and genres. Don't like this song? Wait 3 mins and you'll hear something totally different! Fave track - "Absolutely Cuckoo" is an all time fave, "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits" likewise, but this playthrough "I Shatter" takes the crown!
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.
3 hours long. Have some self respect and use your time better
too long.
I DONT WANNA GET OVER YOU
Mycket bra låtar. Men tre timmar långt. Kom igen
The bad thing: Listened for quite some time, then had to stop to please the baby with some baby music, aka BABBLARNA, then realizing i had no idea where i stopped at. The good thing: It's a lovely album. Love especially the first disc. Some Highlights: A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long Yeah! Oh, Yeah! I Can't Touch You Anymore
The magnum opus of one of my favorite songwriters. I appreciate this album more each time I listen to it. I know the length is controversial, but if you go song by song, almost all of good, and many are outstanding. The diversity of the songs helps with listenability while maintaining a cohesive sound. There are too many favorites to list here, but on this listen I was really into Asleep and Dreaming and You’re My Only Home. I would recommend everyone listen to this album at least twice (doesn’t have to be in one sitting!) Top 15 record for me, maybe top 10.
Solid song arrangement that spans several genres with creative songwriting that doesn't get stale throughout the 69 songs
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.
Almost defies critique. I’ve docked other albums for sprawling of Lodi g focus, but it works here. It exists entirely within its own set of rules, so if isn’t fair to impose a set of rules onto it in order to review it. I’m going to default to five stars.
If you have enough time to write, record, mix, and release 69 love songs, you have too much time on your hands. Get a job ya hippy
Cut out about two hours of filler, and this would actually be a pretty good album.
What fresh hell is this?!
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.
The audacity to think you can get away with 69 songs. I’ll say this, I listened to as many as I could but this guy or group seemed like they did not care in any of the songs. Monotone and reminded me of a drunk guy playing random songs at 2am at the bar. Did I miss something? This feels like the Fanny and Alexander of albums.
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
Tried to listen through it all but almost 70 similar sounding songs gets grading, ended up skimming through to find the good stuff and skip the duds (and was happier for it). Not worth a full listen but definitely gonna save a couple songs off this thing
Ugh. 2 hours and 52 minutes of not good. Still better than Lorde
Almost 3 hours of mediocre songs.
What a wild concept album. It's great, such varied sounds and messages throughout each. I love the fact that it feels like a parody of love songs. The thing is, it's really REALLY long. Sitting at 3 hours, it's a slog to get through and it feels like they all blend together. While I would listen to it again, and probably not in one sitting, there are some really great tracks in there that I would love to hear by themselves. There are also a few tracks that aren't really great and even one that kind of hurt my ears. 4/5. Favorite Track: Love Is Like Jazz
Holy shit 3 hours of awful pretentious music. Nope. I listened to about 50 minutes and decided that was enough for me. It was not going to get any better.
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.
There are 5 good songs on this album and 64 pieces of irritating garbage. Fuck this album.
Sometimes a songwriter hits such an inspired patch, the only showcase for their talents lies in a double-album (George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” & Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Colie…” spring to mind). By that logic, this 3 hour long behemoth from Magnetic Fields might suggest a frenzied spell of prodigious creativity unheard of in music. Alas, this is album is about 60 songs too long. It represents the sort of mechanical approach to songwriting directly anathema to the spontaneous creativity which defines all great art. Stephen Merritt’s process consisted of blurting out some random phrase and proceeding to force a chorus out of it. It’s an extremely rudimentary style of songwriting, and utterly pretentious for the first hour or so of utterly expendable cornball indie-pop tunes. I generally found it easy to tune out of this record, only occasionally jarred into some sort of irate state by the odd plagal cadence (a serious bugbear of mine, but a favourite among jerkoff professional music eccentrics). Like I say, the gargantuan length is not a problem per se, but it can’t be filled by such pretentious claptrap. With so much shit thrown at the wall here, some of it naturally sticks. Dare I say, there is actually the makings of a decent album here (or, on second thoughts, maybe an EP). The female vocalist on this album tends to take the lead on the majority of decent cuts. But on the whole this is a pretty loathsome attempt at dragging pop music behind a fortified wall of music snobs. So I’ll sum it up in a word: pish. Favourite tracks: “I’m Sorry I Love You”; “Crazy for You”; “If You Don’t Cry”
OMG. It is *actually* 69 songs. No. NO album should be that long. Three. Hours.
I despise this record and it’s length
No
Loved it. Amazing variety and consistently great songs.
detta va favorittalbumet mitt i 2020 hehe
Eg e veldig glad i Jarre sin Magnetic Fields, men detta va bare ræl. Alt for langt og alt for klimprete og quirky og plagsomt. Nice antall sanga tho
It really is 69 songs. Oh dear. I'd struggle to listen to 69 songs by The Beatles in one sitting, let alone 69 songs by a US indie act I don't give a shit about. Most of the songs reminded me of nursery rhymes, rather than love songs. I made it as far as track 23. Nice innuendo with the album title, all the same.
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
Holy shit this is quite varied. I deeply enjoyed it, despite the initial discontinuity of the songs, they ultimately flowed well into each other. Moreover there are quite a few interesting sections -Abigail and I shatter onwards- 4/5
goeie vibes voor deze koude dagen !!!!
Ote vanhasta taideteoksestani: One morning in 2004, I was woken up by the sound of a package being delivered to my door. In it I found the suggestively titled 69 Love Songs by indie pop band the Magnetic Fields. It was sent to me by my long-distance lover, who at the time claimed never-ending love for me. His love wasn’t, of course, never-ending, and after the (from my perspective) devastating break-up, I found, somewhat ironically, comfort in that very same album. ”I could dress in black and read Camus, smoke clove cigarettes and drink Vermouth, like I was 17, that would be a scream, but I don't want to get over you.” Do listen to the whole album, though, if you haven’t. So many little stories about love or the lack of.
Fun in parts, a drag in others. I found it hard to get through. It's way too long. I know! I know! It's in the TITLE that it's 69 Love Songs. Might I suggest 12?
Nothing special and bit of a strange mix across the album.
Muutama hyvä biisi mukana, mutta 69 kappaleen listaan mahtuu melkonen määrä paskaa. Ihan hauska idea tehdä tuollainen setti, mutta materiaali ei vaan riitä.
Tällasta keskinkertasta alempaa höpöhöpöö en ala tunteja kuuntelee.
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.
Weird as shit. Grew on me a bit, but wouldn't want to listen to it again. 2.5
Hard to listen but great name
Man this album went on for way too long. Rare DNF
This album felt like it would never end. The only redeeming quality was that each song felt different and it faded into the background.
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
Three hours is a daunting commitment for a day. Happily, this was worth it, and I just wish I had had the time to savor it more. I know I missed wonderful bits. Bits I did love: "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off" is catchy while being such a horrid but hilarious metaphor. "The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be" is another perfect weird metaphor in an old folk style. "Love is Like Jazz" makes a delightful simile, which had me laughing out loud, but again is more perfect than silly. "Washington, D.C." is probably my new favorite city song. "Acoustic Guitar" brought Steve Earle, Charo, and GWAR together. "Love is Like Gin" again makes such a wonderful simile. "For We Are the Kings of the Boudoir" is sexy harpsichord perfection. And that's just a small percentage... I love the mixture of styles and genres and clichés. Something sounds Renaissancy and then veers into modern slang. All the glorious figures of speech and plays on words. What an amazing achievement this is.
Hmmmm…I guess to wanted to dislike this album as soon as I saw the~3hr love song theme. But once I started listening, it was mostly a warm reception from me. I like a lot, but does that push it to a 5? I struggle,,,
Wow. There are a lot of songs here. But there's a lot of variety in style and instrumentation so I never really got bored or tired, just overwhelmed by the assignment. Thematically, yeah, they're all love songs of a sort. Some are silly, some are sweet, some are poignant, some heart-breaking. Lyrics are worth paying attention to for sure. So much to love.
I have heard The Magnetic Fields in the past, but can’t remember any of the songs. I guess I’m not a romantic because when I saw this was going to be 3 HOURS of love songs I was filled with dread. Seemed like this was an awfully long assignment that was sure to become grating… This morning when I started listening I was most pleasantly surprised. It was quirky and not what I was dreading (the quote attributed to Merritt in the Wikipedia article makes so much sense : “69 Love Songs is not remotely an album about love. It's an album about love songs, which are very far away from anything to do with love.”). Each song is unique and delightful. There are some truly crazy lyrics with wonderfully offbeat analogies and observations. Amazing to find so many creative ways to write a love song. The styles of songs are all over the place. And the music is varied and great! This is an incredible accomplishment and wildly entertaining! I’m very glad that this assignment pressed me to invest time in such a long album. This was a ton of fun and something I will enjoy listening to again and again!
not bad but so fucking long
This is the first album from the list that I'm not going to finish listening to. I listened to almost one hour before I gave up. It's almost 3 hours and the songs are mostly the same except that they all tell a different story that requires a tremendous amount of effort from the listener. It's not an enjoyable experience.
Freaking genius. You gotta be a little mad to write this. So weird and so good…this is a treasure. 69 songs and There are only a few that fall flat. I’ll be coming back to this often.
5/10
A concept album, self evidently. I can't say I felt the concept translating terribly well. Irony is a selection of about 10 of these songs would have made quite the album.
This album is NOT too long. You're just not long enough!
Teenage poetry set to Bontempi organ. Indescribable rubbish.
There are some really great tracks on here. But by God it's a long slog.
These guys found 69 pretentious, self-indulgent ways to suck. This guy sounded like a moody Ian Curtis (THAT'S saying something, isn't it?), who occasionally let's his girlfriend, whom the rest of the band hates, sing.
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.
Quite sweet and quirky. The length of the album is for art's sake I guess
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.
Listened to the most popular songs, did not listen to all 69. Would give this a 3, maybe even 4, for its quirky humor and genuine feel, if it wasn't so bloody long.
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
I made it through 8½, then a couple more. Some are good, some are ok, some are shit
Dull and so god damn long
Not sure what I was listening to but it was very good. Johnny Cash at times, 80's at times. Overall a lot of good songs among the 69.
Nice.
I'm actually now dead inside. Someone resuscitate me. Like Ween had a lovechild with Peter Paul and Mary and had no sense of humor. Or like 72 acquaintances were like, hey everybody write a song that sounds completely like it should be on its own album and we'll turn it into an album that goes on forever and ever. I have deep regrets having exposed myself to this. I think this is a strong contender for the absolute worst album of all time! Perhaps that is its significance. Give me the worst of Frank Zappa. Give me Grateful Dead space all day. They Might Be Giants studio outtakes. Anything but this. Okay, on disk 2, perhaps it is telling that I fell for the track "No One Will Ever Love You". This is a great piece of music. By the time we get to Washington, D.C., I'm actually feeling a little offended. Honestly, how can you canonize my beloved city in such an audibly destructive manner? Rough.
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.
I'm never going to go back and listen to the 41 songs from this album that I didn't get to a week ago, let's be honest. So I'll make an exception and review an album I didn't listen to all of. Because trust me, I'm confident I heard enough in the 20-something tracks I heard to judge this album. And what I heard I didn't care for. I don't care for the ridiculous and juvenile number of songs or album title. I don't care for the lead singer's voice. Or the other singers that pop up. And the songs just aren't very good. Many are bad. A lot of 1s and 2s, with a zero-star concept.
Maybe I was already pissed because I saw the length of this album. Maybe I was already annoyed because choosing to do 69 love songs is a terribly immature joke. Maybe I could have overcome those annoyances if it was good, but it wasn't.
No surprise that Love Is Like Jazz, an improvisational jazz tune, is my least favorite song. Although there is definitely worse singing on many other tracks, which also displease me. I was going to write about how insane one would have to be to think a 69 song, 2 hour 53 minute album is a good idea. But then I remembered that many people are involved in creating an album. So there had to have been several insane people involved here. I shouldn’t write insane people, that would be capricious name calling, but rather collective insane thought. SeLF EDiT PeOPLe!!!! For the love of all that is sacred, self edit. There are plenty of tracks I really like here, at least an album’s worth. It’s too damn exhausting to go back through this album and figure out which ones so I can convey them to you. As it turns out, this was originally 100 songs!!!!f*$k!!!! To their credit, they decided that 100 was too many and cut it down to 69 songs. Way to miss the mark. The range of song writing is commendable. Their are a wide variety of styles and voicings, which isn’t easy to pull off. As it stands, I’m turning this album off if it’s on. Maybe not right away, but eventually I’d hear more than one grating song in a row. Power button. With pROpeR self editing, this has 4, and maybe even 5, star potential if the best 30-35 minutes were chosen. 5 stars would likely be too generous, and if I were a dedicated reviewer, I would pick apart this album until I identified those top 10-12 songs to be sure. However, that would require enduring a plethora of exhaustion that I am not willing to suffer.
Pretty good. Sounded like it the guy from The National was singing for The Magic Numbers, but my brother in Christ did it really need to be 3 hours long?!
3 hours of love songs. is 2 hours and 50 min to much
Gimmicky album that I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to the whole way through. Definitely some filler but definitely some killer tunes. It’s a slog. Luckily I pulled this on a day I was doing a solo three hour road trip.
1.5/5 some good songs in there, but holy sht is it long and boring with at times very bad vocals
Weird and long but some lyrics were quite funny.
Not terrible songs, but certainly not good enough to warrant 69 of them 1.5/5
Popurrí de estilos en canciones de amor. Fascinante. Un 5 le doy.
Guay. Le voy a poner un 5 porque me gustaría tenerlo en vinilo, aunque no me ha encantado del todo como para un 5. Pero, en general, lo querría tener.
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
You cannot fucking give me this now. It gave me a little bit of hope to get through this though. And then the last line of "The One You Really Love" hit me... "Punk Love" saved it all though ahahhah When you make an album 3 hours long, some of it is gonna sound like shit. Quite a bit of this does just that. 2
too avant-garde. and _long_.
Hljómar eins og eitthvað grín, hef heyrt verri tónlist svo sem.
so many great tunes. This was a big risk releasing this many songs on one album. Carries it off with great aplomb.
Tedious. Way too long and dull.
3.75
I get the appeal. But the sheer length is just absolute disregard for the listener. Gotta wade through some filler crap to find a decent record. There is one in here. I could judge it based on its ambition which I might give it a few more points but on track quality and overall experience. It's a 2 from me.
Too blimmin long
Easy listening but a bit samey and not for the impatient
Some good stuff, but a little self-indulgent. Did not listen to the whole three hours.
Felt like an experimental album. Did not enjoy at all.
Too long
Actually quite liked a lot of it but outstayed it's welcome by about 2 hours.
Interesting concept, but don’t think I would listen again. Witty lyrics, but not many songs out of the 69 that kept me engaged
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.
Concept albums almost always fall short of the mark. Even when they don't take three hours to get through. The schtick always wears thin as songwriters work to force thoughts into spaces that don't fit like Cinderella's step sisters trying on shoes. In the end, concept albums always find they have to cut off their toes to get the shoe on. The result is a bloody, painful mess. And that's exactly what we're dealing with here. It's a slow, shallow, painful slog of an album. I didn't need it. Nobody needs it. Take the best 15-20 of these tracks and put them on an album without all the trash tracks and you've got something. But that doesn't fit the concept. And, because Stephin Merritt insisted on serving the concept, he's failed the listener.
sometimes the dude from Crash Test Dummies just doesn't go low enough. For moments like that, we have this fine album.
So far OK, but I'm not listening to all 69 songs. No thank you.
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.
I’m not gonna listen to a 69 solo album the fuck?
Never heard of this band. Wasn't feeling it.
Literally 69 songs on here lol. Tried skimming through but was not feelin any of em.
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 was dreading this and it lived down to my prejudice. I love The Charm of the Highway Strip and Get Lost, but you can't even cut the highlights of this down to a single album that would be of remotely similar quality. The definition of indulgence, and a real puzzle who has the time for this
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
Thanks, I hate it. I hate everything about this. The gimmicky premise, deadpan "singing", dumb lyrics, lazy melodies, nearly 3 hour play time, and even the immature 69 joke.
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
Popurrí de estilos en canciones de amor. Fascinante. Un 5 le doy.
69 songs was unnecessary
Didn't like it at all!!!
Way too long. Sorry
Sprawling and ambitious. I like well crafted pop music and almost encyclopedic in it scope. Is it a classic - no. Is it merely a stunt - no. It is very, very good pop music.
This was fine but I lost interest after about a dozen songs. I liked the ones with the female lead vocals much better than the males ones. His voice reminds me of The National, who I don’t like at all.
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.
Good to revisit this mammoth record. I have a soft spot for ambitious triple-albums. I love the lo-fi throwaway aesthetic of much of this collection, which ironically produces more memorable and lasting songs than if they were polished up. The songwriting on the first disc is amazing, and I can't help suspecting that this first part is a stronger album by itself than the whole project together. Maybe my brain/ears are just fatigued by the time I get to the last disc. Next time, I think I will listen to the three discs in reverse order to give the backend of the album a fair hearing! I suppose a certain amount of unevenness is inevitable though, as this is a crazy sketchbook of an album with raw ideas shooting around in all directions. I'm glad to see it on the list. 4*
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
This feels like a lot of effort put to say "Cohen is overrated". I love the idea though. I guess there are lots more references, but I'm not conneisseur enough to spot them. Yes, it's lengthy, yes, it's monotonous, but I feel like that's the message. Nonetheless, some of the lirycs are top-notch and made me grin. Overall, it's an interesting experience. Highlights: (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy, Meaningless, I Can't Touch You Anymore
Ten album idealnie prezentuje to, że piosenki o miłości są proste do napisania i wszystkie brzmią podobnie. Miałem wrażenie że 3h słucham 1 utwór w pętli.
Indie. No está mal, pero es larguísimo.
Obožavam ovaj album al mozda je maaaaaaaaaaaaalkice dug
Najbolji trostruki album😊
This album frustrates me because I quite enjoy the song writing, the wit, the vibe, and the variety of this album but it's length seems self-indulgent and gimmicky. I only made it through 31 songs and I'm just not inclined to continue to listen...the enjoyment just doesn't outweigh my willingness to give it more of my time
Get over yourself. This isn't an album that needs to exist. Release it as 3 albums if you want that many songs. No reason to waste time on this.
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.
Nope
I haven't cared for other Magnetic Fields stuff before and I don't normally listen to a lot of love songs or slow music but this was great.
Hands down a favourite of mine, five stars all the way. One of those albums where your favourite track changes with every listen and you discover something new or you missed from previous listens. This collection celebrates love and the feelings that come with it in often acerbic style. As a songwriter, Merritt's wit shines and whilst often popping the pretensions of love, there he also is failing to hide his secret sincerity for romantic love. Soppy at times. And there he goes, trying a jazz song, punk song, country song, calypso, dance music, all loose and never too serious. A handful of songs from the album were played during the register signing at our wedding with The Book of Love filled the room so always special to hear this again. Other highlights - the dazzilingly silly Absolutely Cuckoo; the dour I Don't Believe in the Sun; I Don't Want to Get Over You; The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side; No One Will Ever Love You (a near perfect pop song); the brilliantly funny and moving Papa Was a Rodeo; the glorious Busby Berkeley Dreams; and the frighteningly hilarious Yeah! Oh, Yeah! which was my favourite for a long time. And I was fortunate to hear the entire song cycle live over two nights at the Lyric Hammersmith. The Magnetic Fields were near shambolic but charming and all the guest artists from the record made an appearance. A memorable event. Poor Stephin suffers from a condition which makes any sound heard louder than normal begins to feedback in his left ear at every increasing volumes - when the audience applauded loudly and freely at the end of the night, he covered his ear, which to the audience seemed a bashful gesture, so they cheered and applauded all the more - poor guy, the adulation just made it more painful.
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.
Whilst this was playing, I groped a young Japanese man in the checkout queue at Tesco. He was happy and smelt of oranges.
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.
AGHHH NOOO what is this oh my no his voice made me cry his lyrics made me sob the length made me DIE. not anything good came out of this.
3 hours? 3 HOURS. and then i read that wikipedia states this about the singer Stephin Merritt: "He is known for his distinctive and untrained bass voice" this is gonna be really really hard. really hard. ..... ...and when he doesn't sound like a terrible version of Leonard Cohen he sounds like Morrissey. 2 singers I can't abide by. These lyrics are terrible - trying to be clever, it's actually distracting. Look - it's clear a lot of effort went into this and as a musician I can completely appreciate that. AND YET! And yet I'm not writing these reviews for the general public - it's how much I do or do NOT connect with the music or the project. And I'm so gd disconnected right now and i'm only 12 songs in. I can't do this. Wait i did. Song 14 "How F****g Romantic" is the worst yet and i'm how far from finishing this? "Sweet Lovin' Man" (track 22 dear lord) isn't so bad mostly because we've got a new vocalist, although it could really drop right into 1983 as an unspectacular late night MTV video. holy crap i'm only 1/3 through this - i ..... "Love Is Like Jazz" was my final straw. only the second of >250 albums i could not finish no nope no no nyet nah pass 2/10 1 star.
An absolute behemoth of an album. I don't even if know if a majority of the songs are actually great but I still love it. 8/10
It was just way to much filler
I can't believe I listened to the whe thing. Reminds me of bands like Beat Happening and Netral milk Hotel...short on production,short on fi high on melody. Quite a project one that I hope to return to again in smaller doses. 4 🌟
It's amazing how you can make 69 songs on a single album but not one stands out.
No love for this one
Where to begin? So much of this is just flat, boilerplate indie. The guy doing Great Value Johnny Cash vocals isn't terrible but isn't very charismatic either. The other vocalists are just there, much like the majority of the songs themselves. A lot of the songs are kind of annoying too especially when they throw in electronics that don't work. I feel like some of these songs are just supposed to be quirky/fun/whatever but they are not. At all. Overall this album would've been slightly better if they cut out about 55 of these freaking songs or released them across separate albums. I feel like an album should be sat down and listened to in its entirety. It's virtually impossible to do that with this album. Screw them for being so pretentious as to think this was a good idea. A total endurance test with very few positives. This deserves a 1 just on principle and that's exactly what it will get.
Prolific album. Lots of tracks. Short. Sweet. Pleasant
3 hours, really? Usually, when I listen to these long self-indulgent multi albums I find myself thinking that they would make great single albums if they could cut the filler. But I don't think you could make this better than 'good'. Sure, there are some nice songs, but no genius or stand out moments, so it just washed over me like a blanket of mediocre unmemorable mostly indie twiddlings. By the end, I was just glad it was over and I couldn't think of any moments I might want to go back and relisten to.
The songs are boring but the concept is awesome
Very average, no real highs or lows, just alright throughout. Although the concept is clear, the album is way too long and unmemorable.
I have not listened to all of this yet - 69 songs! But i will listenend to a couple of hours and will get to all of it eventually. i really like it, it is my kind of music. Hard to define as it is quite varied. Quite random and not really love songs. for the most part the songs are humerous and often quite light hearted, perhaps sometimes with more serious undertones. i could listen to this on a long drive, or while running and enjoy pretty much every song ( so far)
Three hours of this? Fuck off.
Demasiado largo. No escuché ninguna canción que vaya a pasar a la historia
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
This was a long album. A lot of filler but also a lot of memorably enjoyable songs. Some of it is a little experimental and that might not be everyone's cup of tea. I liked it but I'll probably not be listening to all of it in one go again.
oh man this is a long long album. +1 for book of love. -1 for bad songs.
Had not listened to this album for years - quite a bit of hype at the time so makes sense to have it on the list. 69 songs ..some of them sketchy and not going anywhere, other ones still work very well, although one has to be in the right mood to appreciate the performance instead of getting annoyed by it. I hesitate between 3 or 4 stars but go with my appreciation for it 20+ years ago ..so 4 stars.
That was a lot of songs. Did not enjoy them, mostly due to the vocals.
Some good songs, but way too long man
Way too long of an album 3 hours and only a handful of interesting songs the vast majority were quite boring
Wow this album actually has 69 songs on it, this is going to be a long one. "The book of love is long and boring" yeah no kidding so is this album. They really just wrote down the first idea they had and wrote a song on it, just very shallow and the effort was just to reach the number and not actually produce good music. Song 25 Update: I'm losing my mind, how is there still over 40 left? This is just torture. Song 45: I don't know if this is a joke or not, what's real? Am I sleeping, is this a nightmare from which I will never awaken? Song 68: Holy shit, it's almost over. I almost have my life back. There is hope in this world, everything ends. And it's over! I did it, I survived, life can continue! I did like "Fido, Your Leash is too long" for what it's worth.
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
6.9/10. Nice.
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
TLDR
Good tunes, lyrics, and melodies. I get why it's an indie rock classic. Could have used some editing, definitely doesn't need to be so long. Merritt's voice is definitely a love it/hate it instrument. But, if nothing else, you have to admire the album's sprawl, and there are good songs throughout.
Meh
Ma come 69 canzoni e 2 ore e 52 minuti?! 'I don't believe in the sun' non male. Anche 'A Chicken with its head cut off' e 'Reno Dakota', boh forse come spettacolo da guardare live ci può stare, ma non so se me la sento di ascoltarlo tutto. Qualcuna appunto, si fa ascoltare, ma l'esperienza in generale, non la consiglierei. Il tutto per essere stato mollato, spero abbia aiutato. Non pessimo, ma 1 stella in meno per la lunghezza.
almost 3 hours. didn't expect to enjoy this bit as much as I did
Nice songs. But 2.5 hours???
Appreciate & respect the project, just not songs I'd seek out for three full hours. I listened to it all but it became background music... I know there were songs sprinkled in that almost caught my ear but not enough for me to stop what I was doing to see which ones. Maybe will try again sometime.
69 actual songs... and only one that's decent.
didn't listen to much of it
It's interesting. It's inventive. I got to number seven, though, and that was enough. Considered adding, but no.
Voi helvetin suuruudenhullut ei saatana... Kuuskytvitun yhdeksän rakkauslaulua ja melkeen kolme tuntii indiehelvettiä. Tää punkkari menee oksentamaan pienpanimo-olutta roskakatokseen. Ei vaan. Siis onhan tässä variaatiota! Tääl on vähän jazzahtavaakin tavaraa sekä sit tollasta syntikkapoppia ja countrya jne. Mut siis silti aivan älyttömän pitkä kokonaisuus. Ei oo mua varten ei sit todellakaan, vaikka osa teksteistä vaikutti aika hauskoilta. Kokonaisuus on vaan liian puuduttava että tätä jaksais ottaa kunnolla haltuun. 1/5
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.
Varsinkin tekstien puolella paljon helmiä! Käsittämätön biisikimara ja hieno konsepti. Totta kai mukana turhaa, mutta keskimäärin hyvä. Reno Dakota on todella hauskasti sanoitettu, samoin säepari "No one will ever love you honestly / No one will ever love your honesty" oli omia suosikkeja. Hyvää tasapainottelua huumorin ja vakavuuden rajamailla. 4/5
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.
Awful
Was gonna swerve it managed to get through it all. Fucking superb effort for nearly 3 hours 👏
Can't decide whether I love or hate the fact this is literally 69 songs but I have to respect it. It's fun, goofy, a bit dark sometimes and too long.
Tooooooo long
Self indulgent? Tongue in Cheek? Sometimes funny? Yes to all, and that’s why it should not be soooo long. I get that you’re going for 69(hehe) but c’mon.
So awful. Even skipping part-way through songs, I couldn't further than 8-9 songs.
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.
This album in it's entirety is more than Will The Circle Be Unbroken. Jesus what am in for? I am going to break this into two days of listening, because I am currently playing catchup so 2 albums a day isn't too bad. First 23 are filled with quirky and wonderful little songs like Reno Dakota, Chicken With Its Head Cut Off, etc. Come Back From San Fransico. Very TMBG vibes. Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side slaps. First 23 songs is good, though kind of tapers off the last third. 2nd album starts with Roses and Love Is Like Jazz, puts this on a darker and weirder footing. album 2 is super dark, Noone Will Ever Love You, If You Don't Cry and others. Long Forgotten Fairy Tale is G R O O V E. Papa Was A Rodeo is beautiful. I Shatter is a great way to end the 2nd album. Third album puts the album into an electronica space, very spacey and etherial. More groove in this one than album 2. Album 3 is just all over the place, like flying over the concept of love from 30,000ft away. Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin perfect example. Zebra is a fantastic, weird, shambolic, perfect way to end this towering weird monument to love songs.
Mmm mmm mmm mmm. I'll crash test this one. Some quality deep vocals. 3 discs. 3 hours... Sounds like Beck in parts. And like a high school drama production in others. Interesting to say the least. The Book of Love has tender moments.
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
Some good songs - but hard to get through all of them.
So so so so long. Some of these were good. Others felt like the throw away games on those cheap knock off 42 in 1 video game consoles. Need some filler to hit the numbers.
Way to long. Some of the songs were interesting (I need a new heart my favorite) but I think there was too much filler to get to 69 songs.
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.
Cool listen. So many songs feels like a Spotify playlist! Enjoyed much of the music and lyrics. Will rotate in here and there. Nothing really stood out, so 4
Ambitious but bloated. It's impossible to recall any given song when there's another 68 on the album with it
69 tracks! I got bored after 5 or 6.
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.
Got it but didn’t want to listen.
Not my jam
Wow
Nice
If anything it’s too many songs
Holy shit what a fucking punish. 3 hours of dreary indie rock. Yes it's very ironic, here's the annoying hipster award. I listened to about half, which is still twice as long as it should've been. 2/5.
Tres long.. mais la variete de style et de chanson sont tres bon. Et l’auteurn a vraiment effectue un tour de force. J’aime bien le 1er disque et je retournerai pour les 2 autres. 4.25
7/10
rather would be 19 songs instead of 69 :)
Long but some beauts
310825 17:35 4
It was saved from a 1 star rating by The Book of Love alone because that song did strike a chord with me. 1 gold nugget amid 68 turds.
Well, there's nearly 3 hours that flew by. Quirky and entertaining; lyrically interesting.
Ok indie music, it actually has 69 songs
The concept is compelling. The variety is impressive. The performances are committed. The album is long.
Even if there was something here you can’t bury it in 3 hours of indie folk.
Voice is ace VU vibes Loads of good stuff on here It's funny So much good
No es mal álbum, de hecho es algo bueno pero ¿por qué 69 canciones? Después de las primeras 10 se torna aburrido y repetitivo ¿cómo puedo pasar 3 horas escuchando lo mismo?
One of my all-time favs!
Thought this was going to be painful given it's 3 hours long but I absolutely adored every moment of it. Amazing.
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.
I like some of the Magnetic Fields' other songs so I really tried to give this a chance. But this is a classic case of quantity over quality. After about 10 songs they get so monotonous and the voices are so freaking annoying I really couldn't continue. This is a cute gimmick that has gone badly off the rails.
<3<3<3
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.
Lmaooooooo😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You couldn't really grasp an album like this on the first listen, which says something with how well I still liked it
Wonderful album! Did not expect to enjoy this as much as i did when i saw the three hour run time, but the different styles of music, the different singers and the many different creative takes on the love song kept me interested all the way through. This record definitely just feels like a massive love letter to pop music, to the love song as a medium, while also clearly having a sense of humor. Loved it on first listen and will very likely return to it!
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.
Not a chance I'm listening to this
Jesus, this album is jam packed with songs, I highly recommend not listening to it in one sitting, rather spreading the listening experience out a bit. But when you do listen to it, you'll find it's a great album filled with heaps upon heaps of variety.
An amazing album, every track had a standout moment. Funny, touching and beautiful, I was disappointed when it concluded. Genius.
Boring, self indulgent, twee…. And that was just the first 10.1%
too many fillers
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
Jesus Christ its actually 69 songs long. unfortunately the beginning doesnt seem to be very good
The opening lyrics of "The Book of Love" is "The book of love is long and boring"... kind of like this album. Imagine writing 69 songs and every one of them misses. 3/10.
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