It's hard to say what makes 69 Love Songs so amazing. For me, the only way to explain it is to dig somewhere extremely personal. So let's go there.
About one year ago, I posted about this album on facebook:
"I don't know why this album always makes me cry."
I know darn well why I cry to this album. It has to do with the way I think. The way my mind has always worked. As far back as I can remember. The one thing that's always made me feel hard to relate to other people. Something that makes me hesitant to be too open with others. The main thing I've always thought made me "different." I feel like I'm never being 100% myself to others because I hide this from everyone. I feel weird trying to explain it, but here I go...
Every day of my life, at least once a day, I make songs. In my head. As far back as I can remember, I've made a song for everything at least once in my life. It's hard to literally "write"songs, especially with such an overload of ideas. And it's not like I remember all my song ideas. They're countless. And I don't even like everything I come up with. I say the one thing holding me back from sharing my music all these years is that I don't even know where to start! It's just the way I've thought out things throughout my life and I don't have a lot to show for it.
I could come up with a song right now and it'd be easy. It would sound at least okay. I could improvise a song for you now, and it would sound conventional, direct and prepared. Song ideas are on my mind constantly. When you see me staring into space, there's a chance I could be in the process of coming up with a new one. I still don't know what it means after all these years.
Maybe this is all too much info for you guys... but in the meanwhile, this is how I intimately relate to the giant musical mix-bag that is 69 Love Songs.
When I hear this album, I'm convinced that there's somebody else in this world whose brain functions like mine does; coming up with songs constantly, automatically. And then this brilliant bastard got his band together and for once, decided he'd record as many of them as possible. Songwriter Stephin Merritt took on every OCD-songwriter's nightmare here: He wrote and recorded 69 love songs.
Merritt says:
"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." So not all these are "I love you" songs. There's plenty of intriguing song topics spread throughout the album.
And as much as I love ambitious albums, I can't just like an album because it has 69 songs on it. That was my issue at first; I questioned whether all 69 songs were actually good. The music can be pretty goofy and the lyrics can be stupid. On my most recent listen, I listened to disc 3 first and it sounded much better to me. I'd say there are only a couple songs that rub me off wrong, but I'm amazed at how different each song sounds from another! The fact that he actually wrote all of these is amazing. It's all so lovably dry, written by a man who literally only wears shades of brown. No song is instrumentally or lyrically uninteresting. They're sung between 5 different lead singers, male and female. Merritt himself sings some songs, and personally accounts for contributing over 60 different instruments! Some songs are written from homosexual and bisexual perspectives. Merritt is openly gay, which can bizarrely catch folks by surprise in some lyrics lyrics.
The production is hard to compare to anything else. It mostly sounds dinky. I love the stuff I've heard from The Magnetic Fields' early work, yet only a few songs on 69 Love Songs remind me of their previous work. Sure it's from the 90's lo-fi label Merge Records-- and it sounds lo-fi-- but it doesn't remind me at all of Superchunk or Neutral Milk Hotel. These guys try to cover so many genres on these 69 songs, it can be either laughable or overwhelming.
If there's any other reason for my crying to this album, it's the fact that most of these songs are actually really sad. Simple in nature, but usually have depressing story-endings. There's a bunch of background story to making of this album, but I'll leave the mythology and legend-seeking to you guys. I just have a lot to say about the actual product. So I made a list of my favorite songs on it. My 33 Favorite Songs from 69 Love Songs! Not a short list for a not-short album. I added some occasional commentary.
33 Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Begett
^If campfire songs were written by the nerdiest people in the world, they'd sound like this.
32 World Love
31 Busby Berkeley Dreams
30 Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
29 When My Boy Walks Down the Street
28 Time Enough for Rocking
27 Kiss Me Like You Mean It
26 A Pretty Girl Is Like
25 Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin
^"Love is like a bottle of gin, but a bottle of gin is not like love."
24 How to Say Goodbye
23 I'm Sorry I Love You
22 Acoustic Guitar
21 Meaningless
20 Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits
^You know what this song is about.
19 No One Will Ever Love You 18 (Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy
17 I Shatter
16 The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure
^Apparently among the most influential linguists of the 20th century.
15 Sweet-Lovin' Man
14 A Chicken with It's Head Cut Off
13 Epitaph for My Heart
12 Absolutely Cuckoo
11 Come Back from San Francisco
^This song makes me cry the most. I think it's based on a true story.
10 Long-Forgotten Fairytale
9 I Think I Need a New Heart
8 Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
^Not a love song.
7 The Way You Say Good-Night
6 I Don't Believe in the Sun
5 Papa Was a Rodeo
^As funny as it is sad. There's a twist at the end!
4 The Book of Love
3 I Don't Want to Get Over You
2 The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
^She's the girl every guy wants. You're ugly. But you own a convertible. Wanna go for a ride?
1 All My Little Words
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