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i
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Nonesuch
Release Date: 04 May 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
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.
Also By This Artist: 69 Love Songs Distortion
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: Future Bible Heroes: Eternal Youth Stephin Merritt: Eban & Charley OST Stephin Merritt: Pieces Of April OST Stephin Merritt: Showtunes The 6ths: Hyacinths And Thistles The Gothic Archies: The Tragic Treasury
Also On The Web: The House of Tomorrow (Official Site)
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
Similar to Ben Folds and Aimee Mann, Merritt revives the lost art of inventing captivating fictions entwined with personal reflection.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Drawer B
The only disappointment is the fact that everything sounds a tad too familiar.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
A record of flippant, tossed-off, uninspired, only sporadically involving chamber pop that feels, dare I say, half-hearted.
Read Full Review >Uncut
A curiously uninvolving affair. [Jun 2004, p.95]
What Our Users Said
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.
