EIF 2024 The Magnetic Fields Part One Queen's Hall 24th August Review
The Magnetic Fields are at the Queen’s Hall for two nights as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, with two special shows, simply named Part One and Part Two. Tonight’s show, Part One, was the American indie pop band’s first part performance of songs from their obviously (judging by audience applause) much loved three volume concept album “69 Love Songs”.
These two shows will see the band celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary by performing all of these 69 songs over the two nights of their shows. These shows also mark the first live performance of all of these songs in over 20 years.
All of these songs were written by Stephin Merritt, and his use of lyrics for these short songs performed across many different musical styles is often funny, ironic, and at times quite dark. Many people consider Stephin Merritt to be one of the greatest songwriters of his generation and his/the band’s music has certainly been used over the years in many different ways by cover versions from other artists and its use in other media. This probably explains why there was such a wide age demographic at tonight’s sold-out show.
For myself, I missed The Magnetic Fields completely first time around and have (like many other people probably) come to know their songs from other people, and “The Book of Love” from this album is perhaps the one that I hear the most from other artists. There is no doubt that Peter Gabriel’s cover of this song also has a lot to do with its popularity today.
For some reason tonight, the way that words were used in some of these songs reminded me of the work of Tom Lehrer. There was often that same tongue-in-cheek humour to them whilst at times tackling dark subject matter.
Whatever the song tonight, whether it be “The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side”, “I Don’t Believe In The Sun”, “Time Enough For Rocking When We’re Old” or any of the other ones performed, they all received at the end enthusiastic response from the audience, many of whom knew every lyric and many for whom those lyrics obviously had a personal resonance.
Maybe it was just me tonight though, and sometimes you have to admit it is you when everyone else around you is having such a good time, but the band just did not connect with me. I got no indication from them that this show and the one tomorrow were special events at all. There was no feeling of celebrating this music.
At times tonight the band, to me, seemed to be tired both physically and vocally. At other times, it is fair to say that there were also some really interesting moments on stage. An often lack of emotion to these songs also puzzled me. Having never seen the band perform live before, I have no idea if this lack of emotion, this lack of inter-action with an audience, is their usual on-stage persona. Obviously this is my very personal experience here and this performance style was obviously exactly what so many people in this space were having so much fun being a part of tonight. Having to get through so many songs in a fixed period of time of course also left almost no space for that audience interaction with the band, so I have to take this into account too in this review.
Stephin Merritt obviously has a great gift for words, that is undeniable, and he often uses them in these songs in totally unexpected combinations and somehow they always fit together like they were always meant to be together, and that is a rare skill for any songwriter to have. Perhaps though, many of these songs are also about the mystery of love, the mystery of relationships, and when originally written a much younger Stephin Merritt and the band were still searching for so many answers to questions. There are of course no real answers, just more questions, but as you get older your perspectives change. Maybe some of these songs simply belong to that time in your life when you are starting to ask these questions.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
These two shows will see the band celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary by performing all of these 69 songs over the two nights of their shows. These shows also mark the first live performance of all of these songs in over 20 years.
All of these songs were written by Stephin Merritt, and his use of lyrics for these short songs performed across many different musical styles is often funny, ironic, and at times quite dark. Many people consider Stephin Merritt to be one of the greatest songwriters of his generation and his/the band’s music has certainly been used over the years in many different ways by cover versions from other artists and its use in other media. This probably explains why there was such a wide age demographic at tonight’s sold-out show.
For myself, I missed The Magnetic Fields completely first time around and have (like many other people probably) come to know their songs from other people, and “The Book of Love” from this album is perhaps the one that I hear the most from other artists. There is no doubt that Peter Gabriel’s cover of this song also has a lot to do with its popularity today.
For some reason tonight, the way that words were used in some of these songs reminded me of the work of Tom Lehrer. There was often that same tongue-in-cheek humour to them whilst at times tackling dark subject matter.
Whatever the song tonight, whether it be “The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side”, “I Don’t Believe In The Sun”, “Time Enough For Rocking When We’re Old” or any of the other ones performed, they all received at the end enthusiastic response from the audience, many of whom knew every lyric and many for whom those lyrics obviously had a personal resonance.
Maybe it was just me tonight though, and sometimes you have to admit it is you when everyone else around you is having such a good time, but the band just did not connect with me. I got no indication from them that this show and the one tomorrow were special events at all. There was no feeling of celebrating this music.
At times tonight the band, to me, seemed to be tired both physically and vocally. At other times, it is fair to say that there were also some really interesting moments on stage. An often lack of emotion to these songs also puzzled me. Having never seen the band perform live before, I have no idea if this lack of emotion, this lack of inter-action with an audience, is their usual on-stage persona. Obviously this is my very personal experience here and this performance style was obviously exactly what so many people in this space were having so much fun being a part of tonight. Having to get through so many songs in a fixed period of time of course also left almost no space for that audience interaction with the band, so I have to take this into account too in this review.
Stephin Merritt obviously has a great gift for words, that is undeniable, and he often uses them in these songs in totally unexpected combinations and somehow they always fit together like they were always meant to be together, and that is a rare skill for any songwriter to have. Perhaps though, many of these songs are also about the mystery of love, the mystery of relationships, and when originally written a much younger Stephin Merritt and the band were still searching for so many answers to questions. There are of course no real answers, just more questions, but as you get older your perspectives change. Maybe some of these songs simply belong to that time in your life when you are starting to ask these questions.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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