Stephin Marit, in a lot of ways, is the appitomy of singer song writer to me. Being the key creative influance, and songwriter for all of the Magnetic Fields is really only one feather in his cap. And, listening to his music, it makes perfect sense that he and Daniel Handler are such good friends. If I could make a small comparison, Stephin Marit does for music, what Daniel Handler does for books, and writing. Makes them amazing.

What I like a lot about this album is that it’s totally not a 90′s album. Not in the least. In fact, if I hadn’t just looked at when it was released on wikipedia, I would have thought that it came out sometime in the 2000′s. Imagine if you handed Stephin Marit an old synthesizer, and said, “Okay, I want you to make an album,” And then let him go wild. That would be this album.

It starts off with a little intro bit, that sounds like a castlevania riff to me, and we get right into it. Distorted guitar, backed by syth drums, hand claps, and that same keyboard part. A really solid backing part, all tied together by Stephin Marit’s unique singing voice.

Sad as a painted clown, a beautiful boy in an ugly town
but when your circus closes down don’t walk away from me
you’ve been asleep too long, the birds are bruises in the dawn
the pounds of flesh between us stretch as far as you can see

Dramatic pause and Chorus time! Back by a little backing vocals.

But all you ever do is walk away and I know if you’d only go slow you could see what it means to be making the scene with me

But all you ever do is walk away and I think if you tried
you could find a little time
for the life I can see in your eyes, don’t go. Don’t go.

The song continues in a similar fashion as before, as we move on to the second verse

Sometimes you just explode and no one alive can break your code
You have a language of your own, an unconnected road
The people you called your friends, the places you won’t go again
The decades lost in finding them, you’ll have to let them go.

Then we get another chorus, repeated until the end. All in all, a simple little song, but very enjoyable. I especially like the strange and image invoking lyrics. As always, I would strongly encourage you to check out the rest of The Magnetic Fields’ work. Especially the concept album, 69 love songs. Which is, as you might imagine, 69 songs about love, in one way or another.

-James out!