is my ringtone. As an album, I think it's Merritt's best; nevertheless, I think Get Losthas a few songs that top anything on this album: "Famous" in particular. But not much better (listen to "Strange Powers" here).What strikes me most about this album are the lyrical conventions -- especially the comparisons: "On the Ferris Wheel, looking out on Coney Island / Under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand [...] When we kiss it feels like a flying saucer landing." And the entire first verse of "Desert Island" is nothing but a list of comparisons.
So there's a showy lyrical effusiveness here, and I kind of like it. I'd have to agree with Bob on appreciating the lyric "I read your manifestoes and your strange religous tracts / You took me to the library and kissed me in the stacks." (Also thanks for Bob for introducing me to the Magnetic Fields in the first place.)
But the point of this effusiveness is unclear, or at least I don't get it. Maybe I could be clever and argue that there's some implicit comparison between ordinary life and "holiday" life through the album? I'd point out the Brian Wilson-inspired songs "In My Secret Place" and "In My Car" in my defence: maybe the songs, like a holiday (or a hide-away, or your car, or a desert island, ecstasy trip, etc.), take you out of the ordinary world and into a poetic, showy fantasy.
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