The Magnetic Fields is a band that has generated a large cult following over the past twenty three years.

Their most classic known release is the 1999’s 69 Love Songs, a three volume set of all, you guessed it, love songs. Three albums and thirteen  years later, they give us their collection of two-minute songs, Love at the Bottom of the Sea.

Their sound is something like early Beatles pop with some 80’s synths and even more quirky and charming lyrics. There’s also plenty of humor to be found, in songs like “Andrew In Drag” and “Your Girlfriend’s Face”. However there’s none of the expected pop anthems, overwhelming chorus lines of today’s pop, or t

he traditional “I wanna be with you” love lyrics. That’s what distinguishes this band from the rest.

“God Wants Us To Wait” is a rather unsubtly written song about abstinence. Now, it’s not like this a propaganda song trying to get the youth of the world to wait until marriage, it’s for sheer humor. This song is really catchy and really groovy. One of the best on the album.

“Your Girlfriend’s Face” is one of those songs where the song is incredibly happy, but the lyrics are super dark. In the story, the singer’s crush was taken away, so he decides to get revenge. He says things like “So I’ve taken a contract out on y’all, for making me feel infinitely small, In the evenings I devised your death, being buried arrive on crystal meth”. Though dark, I enjoyed their sense of humor.

This album is great. The songs sound similar, but just different enough to be enjoyed with listen of the whole album. That’s not something easy to do, and usually what kills a lot of albums for me. You don’t want an entire album to blend together. The songs are entertaining lyrically, and very pleasing musically. This album gets a 4 out of 5.