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Merritt's lyrics remain as sharp and funny ("We belong together/Like sex and violence," he croons on "Heather Heather"), but it's the ever-inventive arrangements--like the offbeat blend of ukulele and harmonium on "One April Day"--that make these gems especially memorable.
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UncutThere are clever couplets and wry winks, but the melancholy is authentic. [Jan 2004, p.112]
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It's pointedly brief (the entire album occurs in under 27 minutes), but Merritt showers each moment of April with ridiculously perfect raindrops.
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Alongside gems from the back catalogue, four new songs suggest Merritt may not even have peaked.
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Q MagazineAt times, he thinks as laterally as Pavement's Stephen Malkmus. [Feb 2004, p.102]
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While [the new songs] have their charms, none can match the playfully sophisticated melodies and sad-sack wit of 1999's wonderful ''69 Love Songs.''
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The four new Magnetic Fields tracks, while good, add little more to Merritt’s considerable repertoire than a few catchy melodies, with scarcely a clever line to boast.
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The new Magnetic Fields songs will, thankfully, not raise any eyebrows; the enthusiasm and sparkling spontaneity is, like always, pressed into ukuleles and tucked into preposterously addictive Yamaha sound settings circa 1985.
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This is subdued, electro-licked fare hinged on clever, though never precious, songwriting.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 3
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Mixed: 0 out of 3
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Negative: 0 out of 3
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Jun 1, 2015
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LisaBAug 4, 2005There are two songs which grip you from the start and once you've listened to the cd a few times they all grow on you!