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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

i
by Magnetic Fields


9.1

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

MUSIC:

The House of Tomorrow (Official Site)

Stephin Merritt handles all of the vocal duties on Magnetic Fields' latest release (so named because each song title begins with the letter I), though the musicians who helped flesh out '69 Love Songs' return, including Claudia Gonson (also of Future Bible Heroes and the band's manager), John Woo and Sam Davol.

LABEL:	Nonesuch
RELEASE DATE:	04 May 2004
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Alternative Press

Beautifully melodic, quietly clever and painfully smart. [Jul 2004, p.136]

The Guardian

Merritt's lugubrious baritone has never sounded stronger, nor have his songs.

Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

When the songs are not just clever but lively--most spectacularly on the unrelenting "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend"--Stephin Merritt's demo-ready monotone could pass for a singing voice.

Spin

Merritt's wordplay has never been slicker. [Jun 2004, p.105]

Playlouder

Underpinning this wry melancholy are the winsome languor of Stephin Merritt's voice and the generous stash of tunes.

Drowned In Sound

Similar to Ben Folds and Aimee Mann, Merritt revives the lost art of inventing captivating fictions entwined with personal reflection.

Q Magazine

A proper treat for aficionados of the laugh-out-loud lyric. [May 2004, p.106]

PopMatters

Many of the witty, lovelorn pop songs here can stand beside any in Merritt's formidable catalogue.

Village Voice

His Cupid's-arrow vignettes reach deep into the fictional dream through heedless genre-bending, ingenious rhyme and incongruous simile, bleary-eyed dislocation and straight-faced melodrama.

Tiny Mix Tapes

As far as songwriting goes, i follows the typical Magnetic Fields album standard of several great songs balanced with a couple unremarkable ones, with the rest being simply really good.

Mojo

True, [Merritt] still sings in a voice that's subject to fairly strict demarcations of range and malleability, but his deft spadework in the trench of song-craft more than compensates. [May 2004, p.93]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Tracks as smart as the dreamy, melancholy character sketch "Irma" and the lyrical album-closer "It's Only Time" suggest how Merritt can top 69 Love Songs: one song at a time.

Blender

At times, i turns dangerously slow and arty.... But for the first time, [Merritt's] lethargic croak also emits a few degrees of human warmth. [May 2004, p.124]

Splendid

The only real problem with i is the sheer volume of excellence we've all come to expect from Merritt.

Neumu.net

The marked contrast between the deadpan vocals and the lightness of the music mostly works, although because of the limitations of Merritt's vocal range, he is not always able to project the same depth of feeling detailed in the songs' lyrics.

Pitchfork

Granted, the record is far from perfect... Despite all of that, it is a Stephin Merritt record. And SM still maintains his charmingly cynical worldview and almost bottomless well of clever turns of phrase.

Entertainment Weekly

Sometimes his lyrics are better than his melodies... and too often even his happy songs sound dreary. [7 May 2004, p.84]

Dusted Magazine

In brevity it betters the 1999 boxed set, in songwriting it plateaus.

All Music Guide

Merritt's kitchen produces pop confections that can rot teeth, but the bitter aftertaste owes more to Randy Newman than it does Belle & Sebastian.

Drawer B

The only disappointment is the fact that everything sounds a tad too familiar.

Rolling Stone

I doesn't have all of 69 Love Songs' expansiveness and droll humor, but there's no denying the bittersweet charisma of Merritt's pop craftsmanship. [27 May 2004, p.80]

Billboard

Finds Merritt and his longtime backing band moving away from pop formalism, slightly toning down the cabaret affectations and focusing a little more on the melodies and hooks rather than the genre-hopping arrangements.

ShakingThrough.net

i is a well-crafted work with its share of strong moments, even if its impressive attention to craft holds the listener back from emotional investment.

Dot Music

Appallingly tasteful.

Stylus Magazine

A record of flippant, tossed-off, uninspired, only sporadically involving chamber pop that feels, dare I say, half-hearted.

Uncut

A curiously uninvolving affair. [Jun 2004, p.95]

The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

alex f gave it a9:
Another great album by Stephin Merritt.

Sara L gave it a10:
Dark, cheerful, and catchy..."I don't really love you anymore" is my favorite.

John A gave it an8:
Do not be off-put by guarded and jaded Pitchfork reviews or those joyless imbeciles at Uncut. 69LS was untoppable, but Merrit's dewy sentimentalism, flinty cynicism and appetite for seduction remain unstoppable.

Lawrence P gave it an8:
Yes "69 love songs" is better...but that was a modern day masterpiece.

jason t gave it a 9:
Wow. Any fan of 80's pop/rock in the mold of the smiths needs this and other Magnetic Fields recordings immediately.

Alex A gave it a 9:
The album seems to be a dreary return to the days of 80's british rock, the album is quite catchy. You may find your self reciting the amazingly simple lyrics over and over in your head with out realizing it, but the complexity of the melodies is something that will intrigue the critic who is searching for something a little bit deeper.

Shane gave it a 10:
2nd best CD of the year (to Franz Ferdinand.) Merritt's lyrics are just as powerful as ever, and the music is just as crisp.

i by Magnetic Fields

i
by Magnetic Fields