THE 6THS - HYACINTHS & THISTLES
this review of the new album from stephin merritt is taken from a review sent to the magnetic fields mailing list, a review that i never intended to be a "review," but rather a comment on the songs and such. it did become a "review" but it lacks a certain "polish," if you will. we join this review in progress, introductory "jokey" bits removed for clarity...
having listened to it now, h&t is a very slight
record: i'd attribute most of this to the fact that
the songs are very short (barring "oahu") and that the
*album* is very short (barring "oahu"). but more than,
really: there's no problem with short songs, per se --
the mf's have made a career out of it. however, many
of the songs on h&t sound like demos, unfinished or at
least half-finished. it strikes an odd contrast
because a handful of the songs on the album are
amongst the most (and best) crafted songs in stephin's
career.
these standouts include "as you turn to go," "he
didn't" and "just like a movie star." the latter, i'd
wager, is one of the best songs he's ever written,
musically and lyrically. the production is *stellar*
though it's far from a perfect song as it's presented:
mr. a has an annoying habit of not holding notes and
the ending just goes on for too long.
this seems to be a characteristic problem of h&t: if
it's not the underdeveloped songs, the songs that are
very well-written have some other sort of problem to
it. while i do love "as you turn to go" (though i hate
the "mata hari" line), momus' performance strikes me
as a tad too delicate. mould's singing on "he didn't"
is admirable, but he's still not much of a crooner.
it's arguable whether or not the toy piano works on
"i've got new york," which is otherwise quite funny
and melanie gives a nice marianne faithfull-esque
performance.
after all of this bitching, though, the main problem i
find is that only a handful of these songs wouldn't
sound better given the stephin and mf treatment. those
songs are "kissing things" (which is one of the few
perfect songs present), "volcana!" (which isn't, even
though i love almond) and "you you you you you." it
would've been nice if this album came paired with a cd
containing stephin's demos of the songs, but alas.
so what am i saying? do i hate this album? not at all;
it'll still end up as one of my faves from the year,
but when it comes to a stehpin release, i have very
high standards indeed. and whose fault is that, eh?
(c) 2000 - fred solinger -
please do not reprint without permission.
