Stephin Merritt has a deep, fetchingly weary voice, and lyrics at once intellectual and hot. LEVI HASTINGS
First, understand that the year was 1999. It would be five years before gay marriage was legal in any US state. A gay college student named Matthew Shepard had recently been beaten, tied to a Wyoming fence, and left to die.
I graduated from college in New York, came back home to Seattle, began letting people know I was gay, and listened to a lot of music by the Magnetic Fields.
That year the band released 69 Love Songs, a masterpiece whose preoccupation is evident from the title. The Magnetic Fields’ gay lead singer and songwriter, Stephin Merritt, had a deep, fetchingly weary voice, and lyrics at once intellectual and hot. In short, my kind of jam.
