good project. i have to say that i've only recently warmed up to merritt's voice, but i don't doubt for an instant his songwriting genius. while the mag fields' latest record didn't really grab me, it was definitely an interesting experiment, one part mag fields and one part wall-of-fuzz rock sound.

Marvelous! Merritt is a real kick every time. BTW "I Don't Want to Get Over You" would have been one of the main ones I would keep, but hey, why quibble. And I do love "California Girls" from the new album.

so so so so so glad you decided to upgrade this, rob, SO glad. stephin merritt is my second all-time favorite songwriter, & one of my very favorite music figures of all time - i pretty much love everything he has touched. "all my little words" is one of my top 10 all-time favorite songs, & i'm not exaggerating when i say that if i started to list my favorites here, this comment would become even more novel-like than it's already become. it's a shame to see "i don't want to get over you" cut (one of my favorite merritt tunes ever), though we seem to agree on our two favorite tracks from the fantastic distortion ("too drunk to dream" is an INSTANT CLASSIC). top job, rob, thanks for this.

With Whom To Dance and Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits are both on my list of songs that will be played at my wedding.

Wow, I'm all Sgt. Schultz on this one.

Well, your earlier version(s) of this have been in pretty constant rotation at my place for the last couple years and I've just recently picked up "69 Love Songs" and "Distortion" so this is a welcome sight. "Come Back from S.F.", "Luckiest Guy ... ", "Book of Love", "Papa was a Rodeo" and "Acoustic Guitar" are my favorites of the favorites.

Another artist where I've been meaning to take my old single-cd mix and expand it to a double (if and when I get around to picking up the recent Distortion album). I have to confess that, while I like a lot of Merritt's music (in small doses), the only works that I find wholly compelling are the 69 Love Songs box (which, judging from your track selection, is a clear favorite of yours as well) and the first 6ths disc (the Manning track is my favorite, but I think at least half of that album is better than most of the Mag Fields' other work, though it could just be the novelty of having so many indie rock superstars helming the vocals buys a lot of goodwill). The remarkable thing about 69 is how every fan essentially boils it down to a one-cd best-of mix, and every fan gets it completely different. (I think you and I would only have about 1/3 of the selections from the box in common, though most of my favorite tracks -- Rodeo, Busby, Acoustic, Ferdinand, Yeah, San Francisco -- are here.)

Absolutely gorgeous! So glad you decided to update these!

Goose bumps as I read the list. Sigh. I agree with everything good about S. Merritt.

Boy is this weird. The Magnetic Fields is the *other* band (besides VU) that I've been listening to again lately. The Fields (and Stephin) can pretty much do no wrong, in my eyes...although I'm not completely sold on "Distortion" yet.

However, I have to say that Future Bible Heroes' "Memories of Love," to me, is a perfect album and in my personal top ten (although "Get Lost" isn't far behind). I even had a chance to tell that to Christopher Ewen a few years back when I saw FBH live. His expression seemed to indicate that no one had ever told him that before.

Sad to see my favorite Fields' track, "The Village in the Morning," isn't here. Also, didn't the "House of Tomorrow" EP come out in '92, after "The Wayward Bus"?

A band I just don't listen to enough though I think Merritt is one of the all time great songwriters.

I have to concur with all the Merritt lovers here, but as far as the Fields are concerned, I also have to say that it took me quite a while to fully "get" them as I thought they were difficult to listen to in long bouts. Listening to Holiday recently, though, I think it really struck me how great the sound is. I love your inclusion of the 6ths & Momus, incidentally.

Such an amazing band, and The 6ths aren't half bad either. This resulting mix is pure perfection my friend..

rather unoriginally, I echo everything said by KathrynandRupert . . .

woops, hit enter too quickly. . . . I will put them on my listening list (a very long list) to rectify that, however. Excellent job . . .

They've / he's totally passed me by these years... reading these comments, maybe I should check out.

He's sort of passed me by. I have a couple of his early albums but I could never totally get into minus a few tracks ("When You Were My Baby" is a favourite). I enjoyed his 6ths albums as I generally don't like his vocals... at least at the time. Now, I'm sorting of getting into it. I've been listening to 69 Love Songs a lot lately and his voice has grown on me. Anyway, this looks well researched... you've pretty much picked every track I like on 69 Love Songs.

Interesting

You are the master of single artists.