magnetic fields: holiday vs get lost vs charm of the highway strip

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i know we've got a general magnetic fields thread, but i don't think these albums came up for much discussion.

my thoughts: holiday and get lost both absolutely classic, but i've never quite got charm. possibly this is because i was given holiday/gl on the same day at pretty much the peak of my 69ls obsession, whereas i heard charm for the first time a couple of months later; but i think there's something else going on, too, perhaps connected with the trains/vampires theme. need to think a bit more about this.

i find holiday a more upbeat album, and i have more trouble remembering the individual songs. "take ecstacy with me" is the peak, one of merritt's best half-dozen songs ever. the verses make me want to cry and the chorus makes me want to run out into the street and proposition the first beautiful girl i see; it's a mix of joy and sadness and instant nostalgia that i don't get from anything else except maybe kenickie's "come out 2nite", and even that song's tied up with enough real nostalgia to make me doubt that it's the song alone making me feel that way.

get lost's mix of "happy" melodies with tragic lyrics always gets me, from "the desperate things you made me do" to "when you're old and lonely" to "umbrellas" (another classic, up there with take ecstacy and 100000 fireflies). i listened to these albums (and 69ls, and the live version with SM on vocals of 100000 fireflies) with [X] over and over again, and when we split up i nearly sent [X] a tape of "when you're old and lonely" and "100000 firelfies"; "you won't be happy with me/but give me one more chance/you won't be happy anyway", and "when you're old and lonely/you will wish you'd married me" seemed at the time to be the perfect pragmatic appeal for a resumption of our relationship. i'm glad i didn't, but i still think that as futile tape-sending gestures go it would have been pretty good.

― toby, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

new "that's enough from me for now" answers.

― toby, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

TCotHS wins by a lonely, dark mile lit by little crimson lights speeding by.

Get Lost beats the overrated Holiday into 2nd place in this particular run-off, on the strength of two or three silver-bottomed knockout numbers (Desperate Things, Smoke & Mirrors, Lighter Than Air, Umbrellas).

the pf's favourite track from all 3 LPs still = LONG VERMONT ROADS

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is too difficult, kind of like picking a favorite child. The best *side* (if that makes any sense for CD releases) is the first side of _Charm_: "Lonely Highway," "Long Vermont Roads," "Born on a Train," "I Have the Moon," and "Two Characters in Search of a Country Song." Flawless.

Best chorus: "Born on a Train":
I've been making promises I know I'll never keep
One of these days I'm gonna leave you in your sleep
I'll have to go when the whistle blows
The whistle knows my name
Baby, I was born on a train

― Ernest, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Aren't all Magnetic Fields Albums pretty simular song structure wise? They all sound kinda the same to me.

― brg30, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sorry, but that statement entirely baffles me.

― nabisco%%, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

it baffles me, too. as does this highway strip praise; what am i not getting??

― toby, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

thought: charm is more character based, less personal-sounding; this may be my problem with it.

― toby, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sorry, but that statement entirely baffles me.

Perhaps he did not hear the album with the beginning wail and scream of "DEATH AND MY COCK ARE THE WORLD!"

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think they're all flawed, but I'll take Charm as it's the most cohesive. Nothing on Charmed does me like Umbrellas or Smoke and Mirrors, but it has excellent tracks (mentioned above), none of the relative filler found on the other two, and works best as an album. And you have to love "You were just like me/ you were one big bruise/ in the game of life we were playing to lose." ahhhhhhhhhhh

― Aaron A., Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love Charm best.. I like the other two but it seems to be the most focussed of the three, certainly sound-wise. Holiday feels a little sprawling and Get Lost is probably my least favourite MF album, I don't think as much of the production (and also possibly because it was the one I heard first).

― electric sound of jim, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the pf's favourite track from all 3 LPs still = LONG VERMONT ROADS

explain! i listened to charm again this morning, and i still don't ge it, but i understand this least of all.

― toby, Thursday, 4 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Come on, Nabisco, they're all, like, pop, ya know!

― Clarke B., Thursday, 4 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I also think Long Vermont Roads is one of Merritt's five best songs.

― electric sound of jim, Thursday, 4 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

All three for £20 from Polar Bear! Talk more about them, with me.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Monday, 25 October 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago)

The ship on the cover of Holiday is named "Santa Rosa", which happens to be the name of the California town I was born in. So it would win even if it wasn't the best album of the three, which it is.
COTHS has about two or three songs I like and the rest bores me.
OTOH, I like Get Lost all the way through except for two or three songs.

― A Million Talking Hot Dogs (AaronHz), Monday, 25 October 2004 09:49 (twenty years ago)

get lost is my favorite, and the only one that i can listen to without skipping tracks. it would rank quite high up on my list of all-time favorites, if i made lists like that.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 25 October 2004 10:26 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe how good umbrellas and smoke and mirrors are! SO PERFECT.

My roommate keeps being an arse, so I am only halfway through one of them :(

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Monday, 25 October 2004 10:33 (twenty years ago)

'Holiday' is best. 'Take Ecstacy With Me' especially is pretty incredible. But, obviously, they're all great.

― Ally C (Ally C), Monday, 25 October 2004 11:40 (twenty years ago)

I am meant to be seing the Magnetic Fields this week, but I haven't really heard much by them, what should I expect?

― Davel (Davel), Monday, 25 October 2004 12:03 (twenty years ago)

For me The Charm of the Highway Strip is their best album overall, even better than you know what. For starters, I like his voice best. From the get-go S. Merritt achieves the world weary wryness of a first-class sophisticate that's at once hilarious and poignant. The compactness of the album renders the effect all the more moving. I want more after the last song as opposed to less after a disc of 69LS.

― Martin Hilliard, Monday, 25 October 2004 13:35 (twenty years ago)

I want more after the last song as opposed to less after a disc of 69LS.

Yeah, but those first twelve or so songs on disc one...

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Strange Powers or The Flowers She Sent And The Flowers She Said She Sent yet. Or Swinging London, if only for that loop.

Whatever. Long Vermont Roads still rocks. I have a live version somewhere that I like even more.

― Atnevon (Atnevon), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 00:12 (twenty years ago)

"strange powers" is my fave magnetic fields song, and high up on my list of fave pop songs. holiday's got a few others that i love, but flags a bit toward the end (before "take ecstasy with me" comes to the rescue).

charm is the most consistent mag fields album, and is my fave of all the stephin merritt-sung mag fields albums (distant plastic trees being my fave mag fields album of any stripe).

get lost has never really done it for me, despite a few good tracks.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 00:23 (twenty years ago)

distant plastic trees being my fave mag fields album of any stripe

oh yes. of all their catalogue, this is the one i go back to the most.

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 01:22 (twenty years ago)

RAILROAD BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEE
OHOHYEEOYEEEEE OOOOOOOF MINE.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 03:59 (twenty years ago)

I mean yes, i like it too.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 03:59 (twenty years ago)

I like get lost the best

― Sympatico (shmuel), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 04:51 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

So, revive once more the old question: why are there (at least) two different tracklistings / sequencings for Get Lost??? The question that even N. could not answer on the day he claimed he could answer any question.

― the smokefox (the pinefox), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

there are? news to me

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

fuck i haven't listened to get lost in five years or more. i need to dig it out

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 11:27 (nineteen years ago)

The reason the question arises for me again: I have just bought it on CD, at last, and the CD sequence is indeed different from the one I'm familiar with. Indeed, it's bonkers! - starting with 'With Whom To Dance?' and leaving 'Famous' till near the end, when its rhythm is much too close to 'The Village In The Morning' (which it immediately follows).

― the mirrorfox (the pinefox), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

OK, this is how it should be - from the official website:

Famous
The Desperate Things You Made Me Do
Smoke and Mirrors
With Whom to Dance?
You and Me and the Moon
Don't Look Away
Save a Secret for the Moon
Why I Cry
Love Is Lighter Than Air
When You're Old and Lonely
The Village in the Morning
All the Umbrellas in London
The Dreaming Moon

― the moonfox (the pinefox), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

The U.K. release of Get Lost on Setanta:

1. With Whom to Dance?
2. Smoke and Mirrors
3. All the Umbrellas in London
4. Why I Cry
5. Save a Secret for the Moon
6. Don't Look Away
7. Love Is Lighter Than Air
8. The Desperate Things You Made Me Do
9. You and Me and the Moon
10. The Village in the Morning
11. Famous
12. When You're Old and Lonely
13. The Dreaming Moon

According to Amazon, the 2004 UK rerelease on Domino restores the "official" tracklisting. However, I thought that was the edition I had, but my copy appears to follow the Setanta listing. God knows.

Anyway, T/S I'm going to go for Holiday because it has Take Ecstasy With Me on it, and some other great songs. Get Lost is probably better on average, but the highs are not so high. The Charm of the Highway Strip is a bit meh to me.

― caek (caek), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

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