26 Sep
This weekend I finally watched the documentary on Stephin Merrit, “Strange Powers.” It was a very good film about the very talented and extremely prolific songwriter. I have really enjoyed his music, ever since my brother gave me a cd of the Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs) for my birthday. I love the way he dons and doffs musical personas like so many clothes. It’s sort of (mainstream) career suicide, but I think this suits him just fine.
Merritt is an almost cartoonish sadsack of a character, but somehow manages to make this an endearing trait. It’s what connects him to so many of his listeners, who dependently turn to his music to score the more bitter or pedantic times in their lives.
The most interesting thing about his music to me, beyond his innate talent for the craft of song and lyric writing, is his ability to be completely unfettered by convention, yet not be caught up in eccentricities simply for the sake of being a total spaz. I think that he is a purist, in the sense that he allows his melodies to take whatever form best suits them. He is enamored with bubblegum pop, and traditional forms of music, and exploits them for his own purposes. As he says in the film, he likes music that is so simple that “it’s hard to imagine no one ever thought of it before.”
If you’ve never heard his music before, check it out here. He records with several others as The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies, The 6ths, The Future Bible Heroes, and Himself.
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