The Magnetic Fields have a rich discography, spanning across almost 30 years. From the early experimental albums with Susan Anway-led vocals to the kitschy dark humor of their latest release, it is important to see where 69 Love Songs fits into the band's repertoire. Instead of assigning everyone who is involved with this project the task of listening to the Magnetic Fields' entire musical career, below is a shortened version of each album in chronological order, complete with influences, creative personnel credits, and the original track listings.
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Distant Plastic Trees (1991)Distant Plastic Trees was originally released in Japan and the United Kingdom on the RCA Victor and Red Flame labels, respectively. The album was released in the United States on the band's own imprint, PoPuP.
Merritt described the album as a "small record, intentionally small" and heavily inspired by Young Marble Giants. Merge Records reissued the album in 1994 as a double album compilation with the band's second album, The Wayward Bus. The song "Plant White Roses" was omitted from the Merge reissue.
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The Wayward Bus (1992)The Wayward Bus is the second studio album by The Magnetic Fields, released in 1992 by the band's own record label, PoPuP.
As with the band's previous album, Susan Anway acts as lead vocalist on The Wayward Bus, which is the last Magnetic Fields album to feature her in this role. Subsequent albums would see the Magnetic Fields' chief songwriter Stephin Merritt and other band members take on lead vocal duties. Merritt acknowledged the influence of Phil Spector on the first half of the album: "It's a comment about Phil Spector songs. The second half is whatever I had lying around. Most people listen just to the first half of the record and assume it's all like that, a Phil Spector tribute or something, which it really isn't." The title of the album is taken from the John Steinbeck novel The Wayward Bus.
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The House of Tomorrow (1992)The House of Tomorrow EP is the third major release by The Magnetic Fields, and the first with Stephin Merritt as the main vocalist. Originally released in 1992 by Harriet Records, Merge Records reissued it in 1996. The EP's five songs are built on both musical and vocal repetition, so much so that the sleeve reads "five loop songs" as a pun on "five love songs"
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The Charm of the Highway Strip (1994)The Charm of the Highway Strip is the third studio album by The Magnetic Fields, released in 1994. It is the first Magnetic Fields album to have its original release with record label Merge.
Its title, lyrics, and musical styling are a nod to country music, though the songs of Stephin Merritt remain rooted in classic pop and synthesizers. Virtually every song deals with roads and travel, and several songs' lyrics implicitly reference vampires. The title of the album comes from a quote by J. B. Jackson, 1959: "Let us hope that the merits and charm of the highway strip are not so obscure but that they will be accepted by a wider public." Merritt has stated it is the album he is most satisfied with thus far in his career.
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1. "BBC Radiophonic Workshop"
2. "Desert Island" 3. "Deep Sea Diving Suit" 4. "Strange Powers" 5. "Torn Green Velvet Eyes" 6. "The Flowers She Sent and the Flowers She Said She Sent" 7. "Swinging London" 8. "In My Secret Place" 9. "Sad Little Moon" 10. "The Trouble I've Been Looking For" 11. "Sugar World" 12. "All You Ever Do Is Walk Away" 13. "In My Car" 14. "Take Ecstasy with Me" |
Holiday (1994)Holiday is the fourth studio album by The Magnetic Fields. The album was actually the third to be recorded, and was intended to be released through the label Feel Good All Over prior to The Charm of the Highway Strip. However, due to the label delaying its release for over a year, it would not emerge until five months after its successor. Merge Records reissued the album in 1999.
During the recording of Holiday, original Magnetic Fields vocalist Susan Anway left the band. Rather than search for a new vocalist for the band, Merritt decided to sing the songs he had been writing instead. Merritt's instrumentation on the album consists of simply "a closetful of early Casio, Yamaha and other keyboards," which Merritt layers over each other.
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Get Lost (1995)Get Lost is the fifth studio album by The Magnetic Fields, released on October 24, 1995 by Merge Records.
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1. "Famous"
2. "The Desperate Things You Made Me Do" 3. "Smoke and Mirrors" 4. "With Whom to Dance?" 5. "You and Me and the Moon" 6. "Don't Look Away" 7. "Save a Secret for the Moon" 8. "Why I Cry" 9. "Love Is Lighter Than Air" 10. "When You're Old and Lonely" 11. "The Village in the Morning" 12. "All the Umbrellas in London" 13. "The Dreaming Moon" |
69 Love Songs (1999)
1. "I Die"
2. "I Don't Believe You" 3. "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" 4. "I Looked All Over Town" 5. "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" 6. "I Was Born" 7. "I Wish I Had an Evil Twin" 8. "If There's Such a Thing as Love" 9. "I'm Tongue-Tied" 10. "In an Operetta" 11. "Infinitely Late at Night" 12. "Irma" 13. "Is This What They Used to Call Love?" 14. "It's Only Time" |
i (2004)i is the seventh studio album by The Magnetic Fields. It was released on May 4, 2004, by record label Nonesuch. The songs of the album all start with the letter "i" and are all sung by Stephin Merritt. The songs are also in alphabetical order.
The album ditches many of Stephin Merritt's past synthpop and electropop influences, largely being led by guitars and strings. It was followed in 2008, by Distortion, and in 2010, by Realism, which were both also free of synthesizer instrumentation, forming the so-called "no-synth trilogy".
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Distortion (2008)Distortion is the eighth studio album by The Magnetic Fields. It was released on January 15, 2008 by Nonesuch Records.
As the album's title implies, several of the musical performances featured are distorted by various means. In particular, the album's sound was influenced by the 1985 album Psychocandy by The Jesus and Mary Chain. No synthesizers were used to record the album; it is the second in a "no-synth trilogy," succeeding the 2004 album i and preceding 2010's Realism.
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1. "You Must Be Out of Your Mind"
2. "Interlude" 3. "We Are Having a Hootenanny" 4. "I Don't Know What to Say" 5. "The Dolls' Tea Party" 6. "Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree" 7. "Walk a Lonely Road" 8. "Always Already Gone" 9. "Seduced and Abandoned" 10. "Better Things" 11. "Painted Flower" 12. "The Dada Polka" 13. "From a Sinking Boat" |
Realism (2010)Described by Merritt as his "folk album", the instrumentation of Realism is largely acoustic, stark in contrast to the band's previous album, Distortion. Merritt said he "thought of the two records as a pair" and considered titling the albums True and False, but ultimately could not decide which title would correspond with which album. Merritt also avoided using a traditional drum kit, further separating the sound of Realism from the noise pop of Distortion. Along with Distortion and the 2004 album i, Realism was also recorded without the use of synthesizers, completing the band's "no-synth trilogy."
Joshua Rifkin, who arranged the Judy Collins albums In My Life and Wildflowers, was cited by Merritt as a creative influence for Realism.
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Love at the Bottom of the Sea (2012)
Love at the Bottom of the Sea is the tenth studio album by The Magnetic Fields. It was released in the U.K. on March 5, 2012 by record label Domino and in the U.S. on March 6, 2012 by Merge.
It is the band's first release with Merge since 1999's 69 Love Songs. After releasing three albums relatively free of synthesizers as part of a "no-synth trilogy," Love at the Bottom of the Sea features the blend of acoustic and synthesized instruments that the band was known for in the 1990s. Merritt claims he took a fresh approach with the instrumentation, stating "most of the synthesizers on the record didn't exist when we were last using synthesizers."
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1. "God Wants Us to Wait"
2. "Andrew in Drag" 3. "Your Girlfriend's Face" 4. "Born For Love" 5. "I'd Go Anywhere with Hugh" 6. "Infatuation (With Your Gyration)" 7. "The Only Boy in Town" 8. "The Machine in Your Hand" 9. "Goin' Back to the Country" 10. "I've Run Away to Join the Fairies" 11. "The Horrible Party" 12. "My Husband's Pied-à-Terre" 13. "I Don't Like Your Tone" 14. "Quick!" 15. "All She Cares About Is Mariachi" |
Disc One
1. "'66 Wonder Where I'm From" 2. "'67 Come Back as a Cockroach" 3. "'68 A Cat Called Dionysus" 4. "'69 Judy Garland" 5. "'70 They're Killing Children Over There" 6. "'71 I Think I'll Make Another World" 7. "'72 Eye Contact" 8. "'73 It Could Have Been Paradise" 9. "'74 No" 10. "'75 My Mama Ain't" Disc Two
1. "'76 Hustle 76" 2. "'77 Life Ain't All Bad" 3. "'78 The Blizzard of ’78" 4. "'79 Rock'n'Roll Will Ruin Your Life" 5. "'80 London by Jetpack" 6. "'81 How to Play the Synthesizer" 7. "'82 Happy Beeping" 8. "'83 Foxx and I" 9. "'84 Danceteria!" 10. "'85 Why I Am Not a Teenager" Disc Three
1. "'86 How I Failed Ethics" 2. "'87 At the Pyramid" 3. "'88 Ethan Frome" 4. "'89 The 1989 Musical Marching Zoo" 5. "'90 Dreaming in Tetris" 6. "'91 The Day I Finally..." 7. "'92 Weird Diseases" 8. "'93 Me and Fred and Dave and Ted" 9. "'94 Haven't Got a Penny" 10. "'95 A Serious Mistake" Disc Four
1. "'96 I'm Sad!" 2. "'97 Eurodisco Trio" 3. "'98 Lovers' Lies" 4. "'99 Fathers in the Clouds" 5. "'00 Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers" 6. "'01 Have You Seen It in the Snow?" 7. "'02 Be True to Your Bar" 8. "'03 The Ex and I" 9. "'04 Cold-Blooded Man" 10. "'05 Never Again" Disc Five
1. "'06 "Quotes" 2. "'07 In the Snow White Cottages" 3. "'08 Surfin'" 4. "'09 Till You Come Back to Me" 5. "'10 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" 6. "'11 Stupid Tears" 7. "'12 You Can Never Go Back to New York" 8. "'13 Big Enough for Both of Us" 9. "'14 I Wish I Had Pictures" 10. "'15 Somebody's Fetish" |
50 Song Memoir (2017)50 Song Memoir is the eleventh studio album by The Magnetic Fields, released on March 10, 2017 by Nonesuch Records. It is an autobiographical
concept album that chronicles the first 50 years of lyricist Stephin Merritt's life, with one song for each year that he has lived. Merritt sings on all fifty tracks.
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Quickies (2020)Quickies is the twelfth studio album by The Magnetic Fields released on June 19, 2020 by Nonesuch Records. The album consists of 28 songs, each of which is between 0:17 and 2:35 in length. For the album's conceit, Stephin Merritt was influenced by the short fiction of Lydia Davis and the writing of his own book of Scrabble poetry.
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1. "Castles of America"
2. "The Biggest Tits in History" 3. "The Day the Politicians Died" 4. "Castle Down a Dirt Road" 5. "Bathroom Quickie" 6. "My Stupid Boyfriend" 7. "Love Gone Wrong" 8. "Favorite Bar" 9. "Kill a Man a Week" 10. "Kraftwerk in a Blackout" 11. "When She Plays the Toy Piano" 12. "Death Pact (Let's Make A)" 13. "I've Got a Date with Jesus" 14. "Come, Life, Shaker Life!" 15. "(I Want to Join A) Biker Gang" 16. "Rock 'n' Roll Guy" 17. "You've Got a Friend in Beelzebub" 18. "Let's Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)" 19. "The Best Cup of Coffee In Tennessee" 20. "When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit" 21. "The Price You Pay" 22. "The Boy in the Corner" 23. "Song of the Ant" 24. "I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail" 25. "Evil Rhythm" 26. "She Says Hello" 27. "The Little Robot Girl" 28. "I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again" |
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Bonus TrackThe Magnetic Fields cover of "Heroes" by David Bowie off of Crash Course for the Ravers: A Tribute to the Songs of David Bowie (1996).
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