Background: This is gonna be another music movie. I did one of those before withe the Andrew W.K. concert film Who Knows? I'll admit that I'm inherently biased towards these movies because I like the bands in them. The Magnetic Fields, for instance, have been one of my favorite bands since the release of their 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs. That album goes through many different styles of music, a rotation of singers and a wildly varying degree of seriousness. This was far from the first time the band has struck gold though. 1994 was a banner year, seeing the release of both Holiday and The Charm Of The Highway Strip. Both are synth heavy, melancholic albums rooted in bouncy pop melodies, but both are also distinctly unique.
Stephin Merritt, the subject of this documentary, is the leader and songwriter for the band, as well as the main singer. Early in the band's career though, the songs were sung by Susan Anway, and since the release of 69 Love Songs, a usual cast of characters appears on every album. I know I've been doing a lot of documentaries, but they usually have the highest success rate, and I can only take so many obscure Italian erotic thrillers.
Plot: This movie doesn't really have much of a plot, it's more of a portrait of Stephin Merritt, interspersed with a brief history of The Magnetic Fields as a band. Most of the interviews with other people in the band (Pianist, Singer and prime collaborator Claudia Gonson; Guitarist John Woo; Cellist Sam Davol) are all about Stephin as a person and as a boss. Right from the get go, Merritt comes off as a dour, bitchy, sorta mean spirited guy. But you can also tell that he revels in being a dour, bitchy, sorta mean spirited guy. Even a couple celebrities, like Sarah Silverman and Neil Gaiman, chime in to talk about their impressions of Merritt from interviews. They all agree that he comes off as the biggest jerk in the world. This, as any fan of The Magnetic Fields could tell you, is his trademark.
The movie touches on how Merritt creates his songs. He says he sits in gay bars for up to 8 hours listening to disco, smoking and drinking a cocktail. Though the soundtrack focusses mostly on songs from 69 Love Songs the movie barely touches on it at all. It gives brief mention to most of their other albums, but barely says anything about their most popular album. It never even mentions Holiday, nor do you hear even a single bar of the song Strange Powers until the closing credits.
One of the few plot points is the accusation of racism against Merritt that was flying around a few years ago. Stephin decided to write a list of his top 100 songs from the past 100 years, one for each year, for the magazine Time Out New York. Sasha Frere-Jones, music critic for The New Yorker, read the list and decided that it didn't have enough black artists on it. This leads to a brief detour from the thoughts of Stephin into whether not listening to artists of other races makes you racist. The movie quickly comes to the common sense conclusion of "Of course not, you jackass" and even Frere-Jones apologizes.
The movie ends with Merritt's move from his New York City studio apartment where many of the Magnetic Fields' albums were recorded (his neighbors must have really hated him) to Los Angeles. This puts some strain on the relationship between him and Gonson, because they had always worked so closely together, and the change very clearly worries Gonson, but it ends on a happy note with a west coast tour promoting their album Distortion.
Why Was If Forgotten? Instead of talking about why this movie isn't terribly popular, let's instead talk about why The Magnetic Fields have never hit in the mainstream. It seems like the main purpose of this movie is to demonstrate why this is so. The early parts of the movie show Merritt recording with Gonson in his studio apartment using crazy instruments like a wind chime made out of plastic cups. Merritt also shows off his ukulele collection. These are all things that don't make sense in a pop context, yet he uses these kooky things to make pop music. He mentions ABBA among his influences, even.
Most of the music in the movie focusses on 69 Love Songs. This is arguably their most popular album, but doesn't really give much scope on why people love them. The album is broad and diverse, sure, but there are many different Magnetic Fields sounds. They started as a very synth heavy band, and 69 Love Songs veers away from that.
What Went Right? Though this movie is ostensibly about The Magnetic Fields and the making of their many albums, but Stephin Merritt is really the only subject. Even the interviews with other members of the band are about what it's like to work with Stephin. As the brain behind the music, I guess this makes sense. It might have been more interesting though if more of the band were included, but that would have been a different movie entirely. Stephin comes off as charmingly prickly, often sort of mean in a funny way. Though he's dour, he's still fun to spend the movie with.
This gives a really cool peek inside the head of a guy I like a lot. If you don't like that guy, chances are this movie isn't for you. If you find his songs annoying or pretentious or what have you, this will be the last movie you want to watch. Even if you have never heard The Magnetic Fields before, this movie will be stupid and boring. Though if you haven't heard The Magnetic Fields before, go out and get Holiday as soon as possible. Then watch this movie. Then read this review.
Verdict: I'm gonna be listening to The Magnetic Fields for the rest of the week if you don't mind.
Score: 80%
No comments:
Post a Comment