((the final stretch!))
(I am not going to take the time to link every individual song throughout this. I thought about it, but come on who do I think I am.)
If you want to follow along, the album is linked here: 69 Love Songs
- Love is Like a Bottle of Gin – Title is self explanatory. I really appreciate the extremely quiet buzzing sound that undertones the song, a sort of mud in the otherwise clear lyrics, reminiscent to that which alcohol would do. Buzz, buzzed, haha get it? The last two lines are pretty interesting, in that, after he makes all of these wild comparisons, he makes it clear that “love is like gin, but gin is not like love”. I take this as the singer making the distinction that they learned from experience. This is another one of those songs that feels like something you would hear at slam poetry night, but I appreciate how far he took the simile.
- Queen of the Savages – “Person A is talking about his girl is so amazing, even though she is a savage. Kinda icky. I take this as Merritt taking a dig (I wonder how many times I’ve said that lmao) at guys who pull the insult-compliment combo on the women they meet. The guy in this story loves his girl, that isn’t a question, but he views her culture as savage and claims that she’s ditzy and ignorant. But its okay, because it’s cute and she’s cute. In this, the guy is not only an asshole, but also feels superior to his “primitive” girl, resulting in a pretty icky power dynamic, no matter how sweet he is to her. I hope the queen leaves him and his savage life in New York as a participant in colonial capitalism.
- Blue You – A bad blues song. The jury is still out on whether Merritt meant for this to be bad, or whether he just missed the mark on his attempt to make a good blues song. Either way, the flute that is imitating ghost sounds, paired with the Wild West Whistle, and the lyrics that talk about space, result in an amalgamation of terrible. I don’t think blues is a bad genre, I just think white people should keep their feet out of it. Blue you, Merritt.
- I Can’t Touch You Anymore – Person A is mad that Person B is doubting their love, now the love is over and its just hate. I may be fishing a little in this one, I’m not gonna lie. But I am almost at the end and this is not the song that is going to make me cry uncle. In this soft rock song, Person B is asking way too many questions to Person A. They should just be grateful that they’re together, and shouldn’t question things that seem wrong, says Person A. And apparently, that’s the deciding force that makes them now hate their lover. There is probably something about the lyrics around “touching” and the fifty ex-lovers that Person B had, but I am now on round four of listening to this song and just want it to stop.
- Two Kinds of People – Person A is talking about how great their lover is. They are something, and everyone else is whatever. This has a nice lullaby sound, which gives it such such great emotion, and puts in a special place for me. They lyrics almost cross into being too mushy, but because of the rhythm of the song and the simple music that backs it, the lyrics have enough weight to have meaning as opposed to just love words on paper. The singer is saying that their lover is simply different than all other people, and is colorful while everyone else is gray. It’s simple songs like these, in my opinion, that work best for love songs. Simple lyrics, simple guitar, and emotion.
- How to Say Goodbye – Person B left Person A, which was sad but now they are wishing Person B best of luck with everything. Yes, best of luck with everything. Every line in this song is repeated over. At first, it gives you this idea that there is a second meaning to the words being sung, but the entire song is repeated so you are left wondering what is true and what is sarcastic. If i were to try and decipher the meaning of the lyrics, it would be “I spent so long looking for you and you just left like nothing, which sucked but now I am glad because you are someone else’s problem now”. Other meanings include “how dare you invite me to your wedding, what a backhanded gesture” and “I am genuinely happy for you”. We may never know. We may never know.
- The Night You Can’t Remember – Person A can’t forget the night that they met and married Person B. Person B cant remember that night at all. This is strange in that, when Merritt has a song from the perspective of a woman, he usually has a female singer take the lead vocals, but this is not the case in this song. Though this song is taking the perspective of a Rocketeer who meets and Army man, Merritt sings the lead. Not sure if this is to paint the picture of a guy telling his friends what his lover said. The lyrics tell of two people who made love and got married the night they met. The woman thinks it’s true love, but the man was drunk out of his mind, and says none of it was real. The woman doesn’t seem to sad about this, however, and is saying “well I still have our marriage certificates so who is the fool now”, a sort of “haha” to this person who she married. And who also left her with what she calls a “Junior”… it seems this man will be staying for longer than the night he originally agreed to. Better try to remember what happened soon.
- For We Are the King of the Boudoir – I hate Shakespeare and old English so I have no clue what this song is saying. Merritt wanted to write a Baroque-style song, and so he did that. The harpsichord pairs the strange lyrics that are unintelligible if you’re a regular person. Some Old English love song.
- Strange Eyes – Person A is reminiscing on Person B’s eyes as they remember how in love they still are. The music in this song is very strange, with instruments I can’t really pin down. I assume he is trying to get off an ‘ethereal’ feel to pair with these lyrics about eyes that are greater than this world. Merritt flows really loosely with his references in this song, speaking about Picasso’s blue mood paintings, the Odyssey, Paradise Lost, etc. It is a lyrically amazing song, but the music really doesn’t do it for me. The “Oh God, I’m still in love with you” also feels a little out of place, although I’m sure Merritt wanted this to show strange it was for Person A to realize that, even though Person B destroyed them, they still love Person B. Strange.
- Xylophone Track – Person A is dying of heartbreak. Oh yeah, also something about xylophones. I know that Merritt originally wanted this album to be in alphabetical order, and then for some reason decided against it, and put it in seemingly random order it is now in. I guess he didn’t budge on the last two songs, though. If he was writing songs to fill up the alphabet, it makes sense why this song was written, and that’s pretty much the only reason for it to have been written. The instrumentation seems to be a guitar and wind chimes; you’d think they would include a xylophone in the song. The song is another one that screams Elvis, with a low voice in the same genre. The lyrics are pretty lackluster, and I genuinely think that they were written because Merritt really wanted an X word. I guess it could’ve been worse. This song could’ve been preceded by Underwear, as it would have originally been in the alphabetical track order.
- Zebra – Person A wants Person B to prove his love for her. So he should buy him everything from A to Z. Wait, he already got her a zebra? Get her two then! I was skeptical of this song, but I actually really enjoyed it. The solo accordion plays a beautiful melody, and complements the female voice really well. The song is in three, which I’ve made abundantly clear is a great song for dances and smooth stories. The lyrics are from a woman who is telling her husband to prove to her how much he loves her. This isn’t a “I don’t think you love me” though, this seems like simple teasing, as insinuated by the lofty feel of the music in the accordion. She is teasing him by saying “buy me this really extravagant thing” and when he tells her he already has, she says “oh, well buy me this now”. It bears resemblance to the Hush Little Baby Lullaby. The wife and husband go on and on through this list until she asks for a zebra, but because he has already gotten her one, she wants another one. I really enjoy this song because it is a cute back and forth between what we are to believe is an old couple who has had this conversation many times before, and the husband has proven time and time again that he will do whatever to prove his love. And this is the best way to end the album, with a story from an old snappy couple who has gone through many of the love songs expressed in the 68 songs prior, and have “found it”. Through all of the mayhem, true old love does exist, even for cranky Stephen Merritt, you just have to wait around for it a little while.
And there you have it, every song from the Magnetic Fields album 69 Love Songs. Though have of these weren’t real reviews, half of Merritt’s songs weren’t real songs so it balances out rather well. Remind me to never again agree to reviewing so many songs back to back.
Lovingly,
Oswaldo.
scatterbrain 