Magnetic Fields

One of the all-time great unknown bands.

Magnetic Fields (aka Stephin Merritt's brain child) has been around since 1989 and has turned out more great anguished love songs than any other band in that time, but tragically, you still probably have never heard of them.

This is largely owed to their quirky sound and lack of any radio friendly singles.  Even the singles they do have are admittedly on the weirder side.  The fact that they all look like a bunch of middle-school music teachers doesn't help things.  The Fields are a tricky sort of band to crack, they make you search for their greatness.  It isn't going to be sitting on the surface, right their on the front page of Itunes for you to download.  But if you dive down, the treasures are more than worth the effort.

"100,000 Fireflies" may be my favorite song of all time.  It's originality and cleverness in the lyrics, the angelic tone coupled with the miserable state of depression and frustration the lyrics portray, it's a one of a kind type of honesty we all feel but rarely see in the open.

The band's (Merritt's) magnum opus comes in the form of 1999 69 Love Songs an actual compilation of 69 love songs written by Merritt.  The tongue-in-cheek title is a wonderful indicator of the bombast held within.  Songs that are in turn bitingly sarcastic and achingly sincere and run the gamut from pop to irreverent to bizarre experimental.

There are a few links on here making it easier for you to expose yourself to the Magnetic Fields if you were previously unfamiliar, but don't stop there.  Search far and wide, dive deep, the rewards are richer than you could imagine from reading this little article.

Magnetic Fields, supremely Underrated.