All The Umbrellas In London - The Magnetic Fields - Get Lost - 1995

This is one of the few Magnetic Fields songs that I can still stand to listen to (the still durable Charm of the Highway Strip excluded). Even when I loved TMF, Get Lost was always something of a dud of an album...except this song. Stephen Merritt actually manages to find an appropriate setting for his melencholia and the right melody to go with it.

All My Little Words - The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs - 1999

Probably the gayest song on all three 69LS albums, and considering the source...that's pretty gay. I really only keep it on the iPod cause I'm a completionist. But seriously, I am a complete social libertarian I think that what goes on in a bedroom, or who you choose to love is no one's business but the two (or more) consenting adults involved...however this does not mean that I particularly want to hear a fey song with the word "unboyfriendable" in it.

That's not even a word, dammit!

Abigail, Belle of Kilronan - The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs Volume 2 - 1999

And speaking of Merge Records...

Gosh remember when Magnetic Fields were just this quirky indie-pop band with a ridiculously ambitious project? Remember when you thought Stephen Merritt was closet prodigy, a sweet gay boy with Johnny Cash's voice, a cheap keyboard, and ridiculously low self-esteem? Remember when you didn't know he was a pompous, self-regarding asshole with no respect for his peers?

Yeah, I don't remember any of that either...

Here's the one where he tries to pretend to be Irish...