The Magnetic Fields – Quickies

Quickies, the new album by The Magnetic Fields, is just the next entry into a wonderful catalogue of quirky concept albums from Stephen Merritt – only this time the focus is on brevity.

Featuring 28 songs that mostly run under the two-minute mark, this is an album that feels too short (you’ll wish many of the songs were around for longer) and too long (it’s still an hour long).

Stephen Merritt and his many collaborators have made a wildly varied and highly entertaining album that reads like a book of poetry and plays like a soundtrack to a particularly fun (barely remembered) summer.

The best songs are The Biggest Tits in History (sung by Shirley Simms), You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub (sung by Claudia Gonson) and I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail (sung by Merritt).

Quickies is a very good album.