Album Reviews
Long, long ago (1992,Man!), with a band called the Magnetic Fields, Stephin Merritt wrote a song called "100,000 Fireflies," and that image is still the most telling description of his poetical love pop. Merritt's lower-than-low singing, jangling guitars and synths, and classic-pop melodies always seem to glow like lightning bugs on a summer night. On this soundtrack for a film about a gay May-December love affair, the singer-songwriter limns his passions for the abstract and the goopy. The set alternates between weird fragments such as "Cricket Problem," a collage of mechanical whirring and insect buzzing, and larger-than-life plaints like "Some Summer Day," which echoes grandly like a fusion of spaghetti-western music and the girly bathos of the Ronettes. The strummy, evanescent "Maria Maria Maria" could be a great country tearjerker by Marty Robbins - one can almost see Merritt tugging his forelock as he sings it. The combination of quietly gorgeous pop songs and noise bites struggling to become quietly gorgeous pop songs makes for bewitching Sunday-morning listening. If the movie is half as poignant as Merritt's soundtrack, cineplexes nationwide will soon be experiencing severe Kleenex shortages.
PAT BLASHILL
(RS 890 - February 28, 2002)
(Posted: Feb 4, 2002)
How to Play This Album
It's FREE.
Click the play button.
Register or enter your username and password.
Let the music play!
It's FREE.
Track List
- Mother
- Cricket Problem
- Some Summer Day
- O Tannenbaum
- Poppyland
- Drowned Sailors
- Maria Maria Maria
- Titles
- This Little Ukulele
- Tea Party
- Tiny Flying Player Pianos
- Mother Remembered
- Victorian Robotics
- Water Torture
- Greensleeves
- Stage Rain
![]() |
Advertisement
More CD Reviews
-
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures -
Weezer
Raditude -
The Rolling Stones
Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert – 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set -
Nirvana
Bleach (Deluxe Edition) -
Various Artists
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack The Twilight Saga: New Moon -
Wolfmother
Cosmic Egg -
Tegan and Sara
Sainthood -
Julian Casablancas
Phrazes For The Young -
U2
The Unforgettable Fire (Deluxe Reissue) -
R.E.M.
Live At The Olympia
Hear it Now
View
Email
Stumble
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!



- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.