If I were Napoleon, You Would be My Josephine

LD Beghtol's book about 69 Love Songs is now available for pre-order. It will be officially out in one week. Order it from Amazon. I've ordered it, so expect a review sometime around the first of the year. I'm especially interested in the illustrations, though I'm sure the narrative will be great, as well.

I really loved 69 Love Songs, but I feel very strongly about the first 5 albums. This is partially because of my academic interest in travel, space, and place. Those albums are all fundamentally about place and identity. I also kind of feel like 69 Love Songs and i are overappreciated. Not that that they shouldn't be appreciated at all. I'd never suggest that about any album that Stephin Merritt has even touched. I do wonder, though, why no one makes as big of a deal about Holiday, Get Lost, or the Charm of the Highway Strip as everyone seems to about 69 Love Songs. No one differentiates the volumes, either. There were a couple reviews I remember reading about volume 3 being the best (which, arguably, it is) but everyone seems to forget that the project was as much about the composition and arrangement of tracks as it was about making a bunch of songs around a central theme.

I shouldn't be spending time posting with finals looming, but here is my Learn to Appreciate the Early Magnetic Fields Mix:

1. Smoke and Mirrors, from Get Lost
2. Save a Secret for the Moon, from Get Lost
3. All the Umbrellas in London, from Get Lost
4. Torn Green Velvet Eyes, from Holiday
5. The Flowers She Sent, and the Flowers She Said She Sent, from Holiday
6. Sad Little Moon, from Holiday
7. Josephine, from Distant Plastic Trees
8. Two Characters in Search of a Country Song, from Charm of the Highway Strip. For some reason I can't get this song to post. Hmph.

Since I've posted so much of it, go buy the albums here.