The Magnetic Fields Album: “I [Slipcase]”

I hold a minority view: I think this album is better than the 69 Love Songs. The lyrics are at least as good -- clever, heartbreaking, insightful, ironic, funny. The biggest improvement is better musical composition. As in good classical music, the accompaniments have become interesting. "I Die" is almost a duet for voice & cello. "I Thought You Were..." has a haunting counter-tune in the treble. "Tongue-Tied" uses pauses as cleverly as Haydn. "Infinitely Late" is spare and rich simultaneously.

When I heard that this album doesn't break any new ground for Stephin Merritt, I decided to give it maximum 4 stars, no matter how good I would think it was. I love "69 Love Songs". It is one of my favourite albums of the last ten years. For a long time, I have intended to write a review of "69", but I don't think I ever will. It's a hard album to write about, and my English isn't good enough to do it justice.

With "i", Merritt has done the best thing he could possibly have done. To make a completely different album, just to prove he can develop, would be foolish of him, having such a gem of a 14-songs collection up his sleeve.

This album is so beautiful, it actually makes me cry. I don't cry that easily, and the last time I cried because of the sheer beauty of an album, was when I got acquainted to "Forever Changes" some years ago.

This album is pure gold from start to finish. It's an incredibly beautiful sounding album. No synthesizers. Cello, harpsicord and banjo dominates the soundscape. And what songs they are! Most songwriters would do anything to write songs like these. And Merritt makes it seem so easy, like he's writing these songs as effortlessly as picking leaves from a tree.

If I took my 14 favourite songs from "69" and made it into one personal favourite album, the result wouldn't have been much better than this. Yes, that's how good I think it is! For me, this is probably the album of the year. And it makes the best soundtrack for the summer of 2004 I could possibly have hoped for.

I seriously believe that Merritt is touched by the hand of God.

I am a great fan of the chaotic passion of 69 Love songs and I always believed that Stephen Merritt and his band would not be able to match it. This CD proves me wrong. It works in two levels. First, it is a wonderful epilogue to the Box Set. This album is the ripe, finished result of that exercise of experimentation and creativity. The power of the love cliche, minimalist music and Merritt's apparently uneventful, yet perfect vocals, reaches here a degree of near perfection. However, falling in the temptation of staying in the comparison with 69 Love songs would be underestimating this collection. In itself, it is a wonderful, enjoyable, passionate CD. It is one of the best songwriting around and Merritt proves that to be great you don't need an excess in arrangement or a pseudoepic appearance. This CD is musical poetry at the highest and it does nothing but remind us that there is hope beyond the increasing mediocrity of the musical mainstream.

No, this isn't as diverse as 69 songs but anything by this guy is worth listening to. I also miss the feminine side of the music but if you have Morrissey and Beck in your collection this will fit in there nicely. The deadpan, acerbic quality of the lyrics often remind me of the Smith's at their best(I don't have to love you if I don't wish to...)

Occasionally the clever, quirky music reminds me of Hawaiian music done by stoners.

This is fun, infectious music that goes against many of the pop molds that blandly fill the CD space nowadays.

Stephin Merritt is perhaps the most brilliant songwriter alive today.

While 69 Love Songs affirms this without question, i is a very charming and brilliant album.

The world is a better place with this music in it and I hope Stephin and co. keep up the good work.