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Rating:
WHAT A FUCKING LOVELY JOKE!
The same old story.
Someone like Stephin Merritt is either loved or hated.
Known to most as Mr. Magnetic Fields, the man of the 69 love songs in a triple CD, afflicted by that frantic productivity that some associate with genius, is involved in a quantity of parallel projects with different names. Which testify to a fertile vein not at all fearful of inflating itself and proceeding in multiple directions.
This time, however, his name and face, even if subjected to makeup that makes him practically unrecognizable, appear explicitly on the cover.
Which, equally explicit, foreshadows in the image the spirit of the new bizarre creature.
“Showtunes”, a selection of commissioned work created for playwright Chen Shi-Zheng who took three pieces from it, is a great opportunity to enjoy the fruit of a versatile talent able to play the card of lightness in an unpredictable context like this.
Because the tracks are actually, 26 operettas. Developed from the texts of “The Orphan Of Zhao” a traditional narrative adapted into a play by Ji Junxiang at the beginning of the 14th century, from “Peach Blossom Fan”, a collection of classic love stories by various Chinese authors. And from several pages by Hans Christian Andersen.
The same members of the original cast and ensembles perform the musical vignettes penned by Merritt's versatile pen. In a swirl of sounds and settings, tiny “lyrical” arias and American tradition, Ming-era Chinese theater and “pop” settings, falsetto voices and “country” flavors, to “Weillian” temptations or fragments of an eccentric chamber music cohabit.
That amused and sly air that meandered in some miniatures of the Magnetic Fields here marries, at times, with hints of a nearly childlike nursery rhyme dimension. To this adds the simplicity with which, drawing from an evocative depiction of the Chinese musical tradition, the proverbial happiness and lightness of touch allow for maintaining an always enjoyable balance, teetering between parody and surreal narration, also thanks to the minimal nature of the arrangements.
As it happens for the brief compositions that find a way to intertwine modules and melodies so distant, even the arsenal employed in the execution of the music, which does not renounce the sounds already adopted in other fields (such as those of banjo, lute, ukulele, and marimbas), is enriched with pipa, erhu, jinghu, and other instruments of the Chinese tradition.
If you have never encountered the very personal and oblique production of Mr. Magnetic Fields perhaps this is not the most suitable album for a first meeting. “69 Love Songs” remains a miracle you cannot ignore.
But if, like me, you have appreciated his talent in crafting small stories in song form, treat yourself to a plunge into his “Showtunes”.
After all, you can also listen to it as a fun exercise full of small surprises.
In short, echoing the title (“What A Fucking Lovely Day”) of what is perhaps the closest among all 26 tracks to the usual meaning of the term song, (and which I immediately found myself singing) enjoy it as if it were a joke.
Yes, but WHAT A FUCKING LOVELY JOKE!
The same old story.
Someone like Stephin Merritt is either loved or hated.
Known to most as Mr. Magnetic Fields, the man of the 69 love songs in a triple CD, afflicted by that frantic productivity that some associate with genius, is involved in a quantity of parallel projects with different names. Which testify to a fertile vein not at all fearful of inflating itself and proceeding in multiple directions.
This time, however, his name and face, even if subjected to makeup that makes him practically unrecognizable, appear explicitly on the cover.
Which, equally explicit, foreshadows in the image the spirit of the new bizarre creature.
“Showtunes”, a selection of commissioned work created for playwright Chen Shi-Zheng who took three pieces from it, is a great opportunity to enjoy the fruit of a versatile talent able to play the card of lightness in an unpredictable context like this.
Because the tracks are actually, 26 operettas. Developed from the texts of “The Orphan Of Zhao” a traditional narrative adapted into a play by Ji Junxiang at the beginning of the 14th century, from “Peach Blossom Fan”, a collection of classic love stories by various Chinese authors. And from several pages by Hans Christian Andersen.
The same members of the original cast and ensembles perform the musical vignettes penned by Merritt's versatile pen. In a swirl of sounds and settings, tiny “lyrical” arias and American tradition, Ming-era Chinese theater and “pop” settings, falsetto voices and “country” flavors, to “Weillian” temptations or fragments of an eccentric chamber music cohabit.
That amused and sly air that meandered in some miniatures of the Magnetic Fields here marries, at times, with hints of a nearly childlike nursery rhyme dimension. To this adds the simplicity with which, drawing from an evocative depiction of the Chinese musical tradition, the proverbial happiness and lightness of touch allow for maintaining an always enjoyable balance, teetering between parody and surreal narration, also thanks to the minimal nature of the arrangements.
As it happens for the brief compositions that find a way to intertwine modules and melodies so distant, even the arsenal employed in the execution of the music, which does not renounce the sounds already adopted in other fields (such as those of banjo, lute, ukulele, and marimbas), is enriched with pipa, erhu, jinghu, and other instruments of the Chinese tradition.
If you have never encountered the very personal and oblique production of Mr. Magnetic Fields perhaps this is not the most suitable album for a first meeting. “69 Love Songs” remains a miracle you cannot ignore.
But if, like me, you have appreciated his talent in crafting small stories in song form, treat yourself to a plunge into his “Showtunes”.
After all, you can also listen to it as a fun exercise full of small surprises.
In short, echoing the title (“What A Fucking Lovely Day”) of what is perhaps the closest among all 26 tracks to the usual meaning of the term song, (and which I immediately found myself singing) enjoy it as if it were a joke.
Yes, but WHAT A FUCKING LOVELY JOKE!
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