69 Love Songs

Disc 1
1	Absolutely Cuckoo 1:34
2	I Don't Believe in the Sun 4:16
3	All My Little Words 2:46
4	A Chicken With It's Head Cut Off 2:41
5	Reno Dakota 1:05
6	I Don't Want to Get Over You 2:22
7	Come Back from San Francisco 2:48
8	The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side 3:43
9	Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits 2:25
10	The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be 1:11
11	I Think I Need a New Heart 2:32
12	The Book of Love 2:42
13	Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long 2:33
14	How Fucking Romantic 0:58
15	The One You Really Love 2:53
16	Punk Love 0:58
17	Parades Go By 2:56
18	Boa Constrictor 0:58
19	A Pretty Girl Is Like 1:50
20	My Sentimental Melody 3:07
21	Nothing Matters When We're Dancing 2:27
22	Sweet-Lovin' Man 4:59
23	The Things We Did and Didn't Do 2:13
Disc 2
1	Roses 0:27
2	Love Is Like Jazz 2:56
3	When My Boy Walks Down the Street 2:38
4	Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old 2:03
5	Very Funny 1:26
6	Grand Canyon 2:28
7	No One Will Ever Love You 3:14
8	If You Don't Cry 3:06
9	You're My Only Home 2:17
10	(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy 2:18
11	My Only Friend 2:01
12	Promises of Eternity 3:46
13	World Love 3:07
14	Washington, D.C. 1:53
15	Long-Forgotten Fairytale 3:37
16	Kiss Me Like You Mean It 2:00
17	Papa Was a Rodeo 5:01
18	Epitaph for My Heart 2:50
19	Asleep and Dreaming 1:53
20	The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing 2:46
21	The Way You Say Good-Night 2:44
22	Abigail, Belle of Kilronan 2:00
23	I Shatter 3:09
Disc 3
1	Underwear 2:49
2	It's a Crime 3:54
3	Busby Berkeley Dreams 3:36
4	I'm Sorry I Love You 3:06
5	Acoustic Guitar 2:37
6	The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure 3:10
7	Love in the Shadows 2:54
8	Bitter Tears 2:51
9	Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget 1:55
10	Yeah! Oh, Yeah! 2:19
11	Experimental Music Love 0:29
12	Meaningless 2:08
13	Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin 1:46
14	Queen of the Savages 2:12
15	Blue You 3:03
16	I Can't Touch You Anymore 3:05
17	Two Kinds of People 1:10
18	How to Say Goodbye 2:48
19	The Night You Can't Remember 2:17
20	For We Are the King of the Boudoir 1:14
21	Strange Eyes 2:01
22	Xylophone Track 2:47
23	Zebra 2:15

Barnes & Noble

What you see is what you get with this sprawling concept set -- sort of. Magnetic Fields main man Stephin Merritt (whose other projects include the 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, and the Gothic Archies) has indeed written 69 songs on the topic of love. He's also made the three CDs (available individually or as a limited-edition box set) a varied listen by utilizing four vocalists in addition to himself and by employing a variety of styles. Some songs are finely crafted show tunes, some are goofy asides, and some are straight-ahead, wistful pop songs that are in heavy radio rotation -- in some fair, parallel universe. Throughout the collection, Merritt's wordplay is either artful, touching, or both, revealing why he's often called the Cole Porter of the underground. On "Love Is Like Jazz," Merritt casts his subject this way: "It's divine/ It's asinine/ It's depressing/ And it's almost entirely window dressing/ But it'll do." The instrumentation, both organic and synthetic, is simple and complements each song's style: chiming guitars here, new wavey keyboards there, and occasional touches of cello, ukulele, violin, or flute. Merritt initially conceived of 69 Love Songs as a traveling revue performing 100 modern love songs. In fact, 69 will do. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

As the sprawling magnitude of its cheeky title suggests, 69 Love Songs is Stephin Merritt's most ambitious as well as most fully realized work to date, a three-disc epic of classically chiseled pop songs that explore both the promise and pitfalls of modern romance through the jaundiced eye of an irredeemable misanthrope. A true A-to-Z catalog of touchingly bittersweet love songs that runs the gamut from tender ballads to pithy folk tunes to bluesy vamps, the sheer scope of the record allows all of Merritt's musical personas to converge -- the regular use of guest vocalists recalls his work as the 6ths, the romantic fatalism suggests the Gothic Archies project, and the stately melodies evoke the Future Bible Heroes. The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts, however -- for all of Merritt's scathing wit and icy detachment, there's a depth and sensitivity to these songs largely absent from his past work, and each one of these 69 tracks approaches l'amour from refreshing angles, galvanizing the love song form with rare sophistication and elegance. Naturally, given a project of this size there's the occasional bit of filler, but all in all, 69 Love Songs maintains a remarkable consistency throughout, and the highlights ("I Don't Believe in the Sun," "All My Little Words," "Asleep and Dreaming," "Busby Berkeley Dreams," and "Acoustic Guitar," to name just a few) are jaw-droppingly superb. Also available as three individual releases, 69 Love Songs was nevertheless conceived as a whole and is best absorbed as such, with all of its twists and turns taken in stride; despite its three-hour length, the music boasts the craftsmanship and economy that remain the hallmarks of classic American pop songwriting, a tradition Merritt upholds even as he subverts the formula in new and brilliant ways. Jason Ankeny