Showtunes
- Stephin Merritt
- Band Name: Stephin Merritt
- Record Label: Nonesuch
- Release Date: Mar 14, 2006
- Critic Score
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90The album is absurd, confusing (the random sequencing can be a bitch if you're trying to follow individual plots), hilarious (only Merritt could pen a libretto titled What A Fucking Lovely Day!) and bloody brilliant.
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This suggests that a full focus on inventive musical theater may be where his talents will flourish. [19 Mar 2006]
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Some will be left wondering just what the hell Merritt is up to -- those poor sad kids who hung on every post-rock word of the Magnetic Fields records as if Merritt's abandoned them. And then, of course, there are the rest of you who will be delighted, puzzled, and intrigued by the sheer originality of this recording.
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80Each of these tracks - the duelling-banjo Train Song; the elegiac And He Would Say - is really perfectly formed, beautifully satisfying in structure alone.
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75I'm not entirely convinced that this is the best way to present these songs; the live-sounding recordings don't always bring out the full force of the material, and create a sense of continuity that is only undercut by the album's sequencing.
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DVD visuals would help, but it still beats Andrew Lloyd Webber. [17 Mar 2006, p.114]
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70The overall tone is bracingly sour but surprisingly accessible. [Apr 2006, p.98]
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As a concept, this is an excellent work, filled with flashes of greatness. But as an album, Showtunes is often dragging and uneven. [#13, p.93]
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60Like Weimar cabaret Gilbert & Sullivan. [Apr 2006, p.104]
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There can be too much of a good thing, and making your way through all 26 tracks of Showtunes will definitely leave you with a tummy ache.
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40Highly theatrical, camp and not a little shrill. [Apr 2006, p.116]
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40Merritt is a witty writer but, particularly after the frequently magnificent 69 Love Songs, that wit is becoming over-familiar.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 4
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Mixed: 0 out of 4
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Negative: 2 out of 4
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