i is for indispensable

I have 69 Love songs, And whilst I enjoyed it when I bought it I don't find myself listening to it much. I think it suffers from the sheer size of the album (3 CD's approx 3 hours of music). This is loads of great music on there but also plenty of average stuff.

"It's Only Time" is, indeed, a lovely song. I thought the rest of the album was a bit mannered, but nonetheless pleasant. He's a bit of a smartarse though.

69 Love Songs was a great idea. In the nature of the thing, not all of it will be good, but quite a bit of it is.

-- Ian

"Mannered", that's the word I was struggling for. Someone who has the syntax and desperately wants to write classic songs but merely ends up replicating classic song styles whilst missing the essential emotional content. Superficially warm but ultimately empty. Kind of music for people who are easily impressed by something sounding classic rather than actually being classic.

Gosh, that reads rather harshly but... I think I'll stand by it.

Mike

<Looks into crystal ball>

I see a Hurricane Bhoyo heading in your direction.

-- Ian

Ian & Mike:

I'm very surprised - not by your critical assessments, but by the use of the word "smartarse" as if that's a bad thing. If it were, how would you or I have any friends?

Moving right along... "Mannered" is fair, but "ultimately empty" is not. I prefer to think of Merritt as a master craftsman in the tradition of, off the top of my head, Paddy McAloon, Elvis Costello, Ray Davies and Jimmy Webb. At his best, his lyrics approach the genius of Hal David and Cole Porter. The wit and painstaking care is readily apparent. Maybe the emotion is less so, although I find many of the songs moving.

I'm also wary of the term "classic." All too often, yesterday's sacred cow is today's bullshit. "Class", however, is different, and that Merritt has.

Greeny: I hadn't listened to 69 Love Songs in months either, but decided to refresh my memory before seeing the band in Miami this week. I found, like before, that about 1/4 of the songs were great, 1/2 were average-to-good, and 1/4 were filler. The thing is, it was different songs in each category this time. Live, they were fantastic, by the way.

Anyway, I hope you all agree that Merritt is already a giant in rock's overcrowded pantheon of ukulele gods.

'i' is one of my favourites of the year, along with Smile, Love Songs for Patriots by the ever-wonderful American Music Club, and High by the Blue Nile (although Paul Buchanan needs to rethink his whole policy on the "yay-yeahs").

Regards,
Davie

P.S. Relax - hurricane season's over.

Bugger. Meant to put this in previous post. You're right Mike - Trashcan Sinatras newie is also fab.

"Smartarse" - not me guvnor. I quite like people who can be categorised thus.

"Class" and "emotional content". Hmm, not sure I would include Costello or other in this. To take Elvis as an example, much of his greatest stuff is angry, bitter and very unemotional to the extent that even when he's believable (I Want You or most of King Of America) there's a little bit of me that wants to hear someone else invest the song with the emotion it deserves. I feel like that about Mr. Merritt.

Bhoyo - I think there is a quiet opinion growing that the Trashcans album really is as good as we think it is. I'm a sucker for great jangly guitar pop with fantastic lyrics anyway but so much stuff in recent years is just so tepid and lacking. What I love about Weightlifting is that I can't remember the last time I heard an album that

a) sounds so optimistic and happy (for the most part)

b) I just want to play every night.

I am being a sad git and behaving like a teenager with this album. Off to see them in January (Manchester). Hope Reader isn't as drunk as he was last time I saw them - admittedly a long time ago.

Mike

I should explain smartarse. "Smartarse" <> "smart". I have no objection to smart, quite the contrary. But with smartarseness comes a certain preening self-regard, which I detect in The Magnetic Fields.

Having said that, I do quite like the records.

-- Ian

"preening self-regard" - what a beautiful description of smartarse. It's a difficult area. Some "preening self-regard" is amusing when practiced by those we love as much as they love themselves. If we're less comfortable with them then smartarse becomes pejorative. Most subjective methinks but also inevitable. I have no problem with smartarses (would I be here otherwise I ask myself with preening self-regard?) but in this case I don't feel it is justified by the music.

Mike

Any preening self-regard (a lovely turn of phrase, Ian) there may be in Stephin Merritt only ADDS to my enjoyment of his songs. I think of him more as being self-mocking while still fully aware of his own linguistic talents.

And just to make it clear: I was having fun when I described the three of us as smartarses. In fact, I was being a smartarse. Maybe I should have used one of these.

Anyway, for my money, 'i' is a fine album, and gets better every time I play it.

Regards,
Davie