Love At the Bottom of the Sea

The Magnetic Fields are the kind of band that embraces their ideas full tilt and inevitably seem to follow through on these ideas incredibly well. Their most well known album, 69 Love Songs, is a triple album made up exactly 69 love songs, and clocks in at nearly three hours. They have also released true-to-title albums including Distortion, which is full of distorted guitar, Realism, which is a folky sounding album (hence the "realism") and i, which is simply a bunch of songs that start with the letter "I." It's strange, but inspired stuff, and that's more than you can say about most bands these days.

Now, however, The Magnetic Fields have come out with a new album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, which is not an album based around a strict scheme or concept like their other works. Most of the album does focus lyrically on love though, albeit loosely enough that it isn't a true concept album. It's an intriguing record, as the audience finally gets to see the band without any true limitations or guidelines filtering their work, but instead just as they are. This is at the same time a blessing and a curse, though thankfully more of the former. But while there are some amazingly beautiful songs on Love at the Bottom of the Sea, there are some songs that just seem out of place. 

A great example of the mash of styles clashing against each other is the wonderful old school pop sound of "I'll Go Anywhere With Hugh," which is quickly followed by the synth driven "Infatuation (With Your Gyration)." The titles alone, and what they insinuate, are enough to exemplify that they are a complete turn in style and ideas for the band with the former having clever word play and a more laid back vibe, and the latter sounding very similar to an LCD Soundsystem tune.      

Where the album really works is in its low key moments. As said before, "I'll Go Anywhere With Hugh" is a great example of this, but also there are songs like the clever "Andrew In Drag" and the album standout "Quick!," which shines with its gauzy synth, and great lyrics and vocals. Even some of the songs that are less low key, like "God Wants To Wait" and the previously mentioned "Infatuation (With Your Gyration)" are good songs as well, despite their presence throwing things out of sorts. They sound ripped right out of the 80's in a way with their synth-heavy approach.

Love at the Bottom of the Sea is a very good album, but where it suffers is the lack of vision present in the previous Magnetic Field's albums. It seems that the concepts of their other albums narrowed their focus enough that they could make an album that had some sort of direction, instead of veering off course a bit like this album does. 

What keeps the album intact is that there is actually a rather loose concept of love running throughout it. It just happens to be a bit too loose, and the differences in the idea present in some songs get in the way sometimes. This is why the concept albums seem to work most for The Magnetic Fields, as they are so eclectic. Their previous albums have such a range that having a running theme present through a concept album allows them to explore while still keeping things connected. 

While Love at the Bottom of the Sea isn't going to knock off 69 Love Songs as The Magnetic Field's best work, it is a grower. After a few more listens, the rough spots are nowhere near as rough as they seemed before. As a matter of fact, the album is pretty damn charming, or at least most of it is. Inevitably, it's about whether or not you're willing to submit to the strange charm The Magnetic Fields manage to possess. And you should. It's well worth it, even if this album isn't their best.