Before there was mainstream "emo," there was Morrissey, Robert Smith and Stephin Merritt. The last of the lot may be the least well known, but he certainly merits mention among the musical pantheon of gods and generational icons, owing largely to the success of his 3-disc concept album "69 Love Songs," with group The Magnetic Fields.
Last week The Magnetic Fields released their 10th album, "Realism," consisting of 14 songs packed with wit and charm that anyone can appreciate. But before you download the band's latest release, you need to first listen to "69."
Sold separately, the first disc is arguably the most listenable. To fully understand and benefit from the collection, you have to listen to every second with diligence, patience and an open mind. This may not be easy for the new listener, as Merritt's pop songs often tend toward the absurd.
The most infamously unlistenable examples are "Punk Love" and "Love is like Jazz." While some may condemn Merritt for unskilled musicianship, by riskily adding these songs to the collection, he strengthens his concept by demonstrating that love comes in every form, is imperfect, bizarre and sometimes even unbearable.
Other than these two anomalies, many songs have an up-beat, catchy composition. Nevertheless, their arrangement is of a different breed than that of typical love songs. In addition to standard acoustic faire, Merritt also uses dozens of devices from every corner of the globe, including the musical saw, rain stick, Roland harmonizer, lap steel, marxophone, tremeloa, synclavier, moog satellite, ocarina, pennywhistle, hohnermelodica, kalimas, chicken shakers, cabasas... whew! Think Brian Eno's low-fi indie pop at its most outrageous and glorious.
As well as manifesting the charm of classic pop acts like Buddy Holly, the core of the album's identity is its diverse musical style. "Chicken With Its Head Cut Off" echoes classic Cash and his country-rock style, while "Fido Your Leash is Too Long" is a synth hit with electronic flourishes, as well as elements of banjo, cello, mandolin, piano, percussion, accordian and flute.
Merritt's intriguing musical eccentricities compliment his poetic lyrics, in which his favorite topics (other than love) are the moon, dancing, rain, eyes, nature, lust, the dead, youth, old age, cities, marriage and drinking. He tackles these subjects with cartoony seriousness, which sounds like a contradiction because it is. By pairing deceptively light and poppy tunes with serious lyrics, Merritt mocks the typical commercialized love song and creates humor in unexpected yet refreshingly gruesome lyrics that the casual listener may not catch if he or she is simply bobbing his or her head to the beat.
Merritt's undeniable trademark is his unrelenting self-deprecation. Part of this insecurity undoubtedly stems in part from being gay in a homophobic society, yet the majority of his concerns are self-manifested. In the first line of the entire collection he warns: "Don't fall in love with me yet… You might decide I'm a nut." However, Merritt later conveys a deep sense of loneliness and yearning for love, even declaring later, "You're my only home." He needs love because everyone needs love. He is just afraid that lovers will regret him, so he turns himself down first.
Merritt can't help but fall for the wrong guy as he tells him, "I like your twisted point of view." And later when it doesn't work out, he is cruel as he sings, "no one will ever love you." But this cycle of push-and-pull does not belong to Merritt alone. He is not the only one to fall in love with someone who was obviously not right for him. He is not the only one to hurt the one he loves. But he is unique in his ability to capture these mistakes and turn them into something beautiful.
These songs are real, written from real experience. Because we aren't forced to listen to them like the perpetually played Top 40, we feel as if we have discovered the songs ourselves, making them more personal. The bottom line is that these love songs can be enjoyed by anyone who discovers them. I mean, who can't relate: "Let's pretend we're bunny rabbits/ Let's do it all day long."
Lovers come and go, but these songs and emotions are eternal. To echo Camus's famous character, Joseph Grand, "Hats off, gentlemen." Here's a glass of vermouth to eternal youth and freedom."
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