69 Love Songs

The first volume is absolutely the strongest. I find the second the weakest and the third one in between (although it has some of my favorite songs...Acoustic Guitar, Yeah, Oh Yeah! and The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure, which I think is really under rated in general...one of my favorite Magnetic Field songs).

I'd make a mix, but why so short? Most of the songs are under three minutes. Seeing as each volume has 23 songs, why not make it bigger?

I think it's great, but it also started this thing where whenever a new Magnetic Fields album comes out it always ends up being as much about the gimmick as anything else, and it's made his career arc kinda weird to follow. I think I and Distortion are both good albums but they have the same ragtag, "Don't like this one? Don't worry, another one's on the way" feel that 69 Love Songs has, and end up feeling almost like expansion packs or something (even the Jesus & Mary Chain obsession of Distortion was already there, kinda - "When My Boy Walks Down The Street", for instance.)

My faves, in order of appearence:

"Reno Dakota"
"I Don't Want To Get Over You"
"I Think I Need A New Heart"
"Nothing Matters When We're Dancing"
"When My Boy Walks Down The Street"
"Very Funny"
"If You Don't Cry"
"Papa Was A Rodeo"
"The Sun Goes Down & The World Goes Dancing"
"Underwear"
"Busby Berekely Dreams"
"The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure"
"Yeah!! Oh Yeah!!!"
"Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin"
"The Night You Can't Remember"

I thought i largely avoided that problem, if most of the songs don't quite measure up to its best moments, but, yeah, I had real problems with Distortion. When Merritt wasn't relying too heavily on the gimmick to carry the songs over and managed to write something that stacks up with his best work, the gimmick actually ended up dragging it down.

My attempt (alphabetically:
Acoustic Guitar
All My Little Words
The Book of Love
Busby Berkeley Dreams
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
Come Back from San Francisco
(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy
The Death of Ferdinand De Saussure (I had no idea what song you guys were talking about, since I never really paid attention to the titles, and I'm pretty sure he mangles the pronunciation of "De Saussure" so I never got the reference - with that cleared up, I like the song even more)
I Don't Believe in the Sun
I Don't Want to Get Over You
If You Don't Cry
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
My Only Friend
No One Will Ever Love You
Papa Was a Rodeo
Reno Dakota
Sweet-Lovin' Man
Very Funny
Washington, D.C.
When My Boy Walks Down the Street
Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
You're My Only Home

I guess I hadn't realized it, but my list suggests I'm pretty keen on the second volume.

My girlfriend bought me the first volume a year ago and I have been listening to it ever since. So obviously a lot of mine will come from there. Picked up volumes 2 and 3 this past July, and they're great, but they feel more like afterthoughts (which could be because the first one was so new and fresh to me and I hold it up as the standard; but they're definitely growing on me). Merritt's a wonderful lyricist, he's not content to just make love songs, but likes twisting them up, making them sarcastic, depressing or sardonic. The way The Book of Love's final chorus begins just brings a smile to my face. Wedding rings indeed. Oddly enough, the Peter Gabriel version, while losing the fun of the song, manages to take the same words and make it completely straight and romantic.

My faves, in the order in which I can remember them.
All My Little Words - the first song of theirs I ever heard. A special place in my heart.
The Way You Say Goodnight
The Book of Love
Papa Was A Rodeo
Nothing Matters When We're Dancing
Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
I Don't Want to Get Over You - which describes every post-break up I ever had in high school
Love is Like a Bottle of Gin
I'm Sorry I Love You
Come Back from San Francisco
Sweet Lovin Man
Busby Berkeley Dreams
Long Forgotten Fairytale

Stephin Merritt on his new release... http://bit.ly/aVlljb
I'm still digging in 69Love Songs...

There's a group of 9 local bands here in Asheville that are doing a show together playing this tonight!