STEVEN MERRITT
I walked into Borders on Friday with a nice sized gift card ready to purchase overly priced cds to listen to this weekend. I ended up buying 69 Love Songs Vol 1 by the Magnetic Fields and Tigermilk by Belle and Sebastian. It is not easy writing a "love song" that doesn't fall into the same category as Richard Marx and Michael Bolton. Steven Merritt can write a pop song...and he can write a love song that doesn't sound like it should be on Delilah After Dark. There are others that write as well as him, but I don't know if there is anyone who does it better. Granted, some of the songs on the cd are silly as shit (Lets Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits "lets pretend we're bunny rabbits lets do it all night long...and when we've had a couple of beers we'll put on bunny suits, I long to nibble your ears and do as bunnies do.") and thats alright to me, but there are also some great songs filled with observations you never spend time thinking about. The Magnetic Fields most recent release Distortion seems to have the same great songwriting...the only difference is that the pop melodies are sung over distorted guitars. Here is a great song from the album, displaying the songwriting I really like about Steven Merritt. He also does a nice little acoustic version you can see here The Nun's Litany (acoustic). He is a funny looking character in his cab driver hat and he writes a good song.
The Magnetic Fields [mp3] The Nun's Litany
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