I didn’t like 50 Song Memoir at first but had bought tickets for both their Barbican shows where they’d do it in full before the album was released.
50 Song Memoir seemed dull at first and I gave up listening half way through. I had to give it repeated listens as I’d put up a lot of money and a committed a weekend to the concerts. The album did break for me and became one of my favourites of the years. Songs like:
Have You Seen It In The Snow
I Wish I Had Pictures
You Can Never Go Back To New York and
How I Failed Ethics (which is lyrically brilliant) are all strong as any on 69 Love Songs.
It took a lot of repeated listens but it’s worth persevering with the album.
Aye with headphones on it will make you queasy af!
The live version in the Strange Powers documentary is good and a bit funny with Stephin ripping his shirt open like some kind of Maudlin indie Hulk Hogan
In the end I concluded that there were six good songs on it. There’s a lot of work to do working through 50 songs to find 6 good ones. I sold my (ridiculously expensive) copy.
The only one that I think is up to 69 Love Songs standard is The Snow White Cottages (Have You Seen it in the Snow and Cold Blooded Man are the others that are close).
The whole thing just smacks of hubris to me - it could have been a strong single album instead of the conceptual bore that it is.
I think my main problem with 50 Song Memoir it is that it is autobiographical (also the tunes aren’t great). 69 Love Songs is full of stories that clearly aren’t true (Papa Was A Rodeo, Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, Yeah Oh Yeah, most of them really) but contain some kind of wider truth - or at least seem to.
Whereas 50 Song Memoir, the songs are based on actual events and contain pretty much no further interest beyond that. There’s that one about being at university (How I Failed Ethics) which is just a grim trudge detailing a not especially interesting 30 year old incident. That’s how I hear most of the album, boring stories set to boring tunes, completely bogged down by the concept and devoid of most of the things I loved about 69 Love Songs, which is still easily one of my favourite records ever.
Yes, I agree with every word of this. 69 Love Songs is really an extended love song to the idea of songwriting itself, full of humour, parody and glorious transcendent moments that remind you what music can do and how glorious it is. I think if you like music and the craft of songwriting at all you are bound to find something to love in it. Whereas 50 Song Memoir seems to require you to be almost unnaturally interested in Stephin Merritt, which I found that I was not.
He did this over 2 nights in Edinburgh last year I think? Never listened to the album so wasn’t fussed enough for the price, but now feels like the sort of “event” thing that’s worth going to even if you only have a passing interest in the band. Might look into the next set of shows in that case.
Oh wait, @badcustard made me remember that it was acutally two nights of the 50 Song Memoir. Not fussed then.
Yep. Saw it on Jools Holland at the time and it was definitely a bit of a wow moment for me. Dunno why but I couldn’t get hold of the album for months after. Was a bit of a shock when I got it - thought it was all going to be languid piano ballads! (This was in the days before you could adequately listen to stuff on the internet before purchase)
I still don’t think i’ve listened to everything on 69 Love Songs but there’s some fucking great songs on there. As there are on their other records, particularly like Get Lost.
Elsewhere, Get Lost and Holiday are better albums than 69LS overall, and I’ve got a huge soft spot for i, which is hugely underrated. FWIW, this is probably my favourite Stephin Merritt track: