He's guaranteed the number one song in Purgatory
I am actually studying now, since I have an exam tomorrow, so I'll be quick.
I posted a few days ago about the excessive hype surrounding 69 Love Songs. Now Pitchfork is alleging that that project inaugurated "high concept indie pop". Yeah, I get that it caught a lot of people's attention but it certainly wasn't the first or most important concept album by Stephin Merritt, nor was it the best. Anyways, I've already ranted about this enough. The ridiculousness of this article is especially highlighted by the claim that:
What's surprising is that The Tragic Treasury turns out to be the most consistently enjoyable record Merritt has released this century.
Consistently enjoyable 69 Love Songs may have not been, but the first few albums were near perfection. They may not have been subversive children's book soundtracks, but come on! Like I said, I've ranted about this enough.
posted by aimi at
11:39 PM
1 Comments:
69 Love Songs is my favorite Stephin Merritt album, though it's not because I don't respect the earlier ones - I just think it's that good.
Part of it is just the conceit, the scope. Sure it's silly, but it's still impressive. And then there's the wide range of singers, which gives it great texture (especially Shirley Simms - why doesn't she sing every song in the world?). And, at least for me, there's the unique feeling of each disc, which makes it feel much bigger than it would if it were just 69 consecutive songs.
Plus, a big part of it is the number of truly great songs. No One Will Ever Love You, Long Forgotten Fairytale, I Don't Want to Get Over You, Come Back From San Fransisco, Papa Was a Rodeo, Abigail..., Busby Berkeley Dreams, and so on. And I've forgotten plenty of great ones. Sure, there's some filler, but anyone could cull 20-30 songs that they love to death out of the whole.
Which is the biggest thing, I think. No matter how many times I've listened to it, I'll still be blindsided by some song that I had forgotten being so good.
Good luck with finals.
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