Quickies (album)
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Quickies | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 29, 2020 | |||
Recorded | Cottage Sounds, Decibelle, Mad Oak[1] | |||
Genre | Indie rock, indie pop | |||
Length | 46:40 | |||
Label | Nonesuch | |||
Producer | Stephin Merritt | |||
The Magnetic Fields chronology | ||||
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Quickies is the twelfth studio album by The Magnetic Fields. The album consists of 28 songs, each of which is between 0:17 and 2:35 in length.[2] For the album's conceit, Magnetic Fields singer and songwriter Stephin Merritt was influenced by the short fiction of Lydia Davis and the writing of his own book of Scrabble poetry.[3]
Release[]
Quickies is available as a box set of five 7" records or as a CD. The US release of the CD was delayed to June 19.[4] A single LP release was done for Record Store Day of the same year, pressed on pink vinyl and featuring a bonus track on Side A - "The Witches' Fly".
Reception[]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 74/100[6] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
And It Don't Stop | ![]() ![]() |
Beats Per Minute | 78%[9] |
Exclaim! | 8/10[10] |
MusicOMH | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork | 7.3/10[3] |
Slant Magazine | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quickies was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 11 reviews.[6]
Marc Hogan from Pitchfork said that the album "thrives" on the shortness of its songs,[3] and Slant Magazine stated that Merritt "[flourishes] under the constraints he sets for himself".[12] In his Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau singled out the following tracks as highlights – "I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again", "My Stupid Boyfriend", "Come, Life, Shaker Life!", and "The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee" – and summarized the album as "28 songs in 48 minutes, too few as clever as you'd hope, several rather nice, more than that stupider than this very smart man believes".[8]
Track listing[]
All tracks are written by Stephin Merritt.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Castles of America" | 0:34 |
2. | "The Biggest Tits in History" | 2:12 |
3. | "The Day the Politicians Died" | 1:57 |
4. | "Castles Down a Dirt Road" | 1:47 |
5. | "Bathroom Quickie" | 0:46 |
6. | "My Stupid Boyfriend" | 2:01 |
7. | "Love Gone Wrong" | 2:13 |
8. | "Favorite Bar" | 1:12 |
9. | "Kill a Man a Week" | 0:59 |
10. | "Kraftwerk in a Blackout" | 1:49 |
11. | "When She Plays the Toy Piano" | 2:06 |
12. | "Death Pact (Let's Make A)" | 0:17 |
13. | "I've Got a Date with Jesus" | 2:16 |
14. | "Come, Life, Shaker Life!" | 2:35 |
15. | "(I Want to Join A) Biker Gang" | 2:21 |
16. | "Rock 'n' Roll Guy" | 2:33 |
17. | "You've Got a Friend in Beelzebub" | 1:13 |
18. | "Let's Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)" | 1:15 |
19. | "The Best Cup of Coffee In Tennessee" | 2:07 |
20. | "When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit" | 1:52 |
21. | "The Price You Pay" | 1:52 |
22. | "The Boy in the Corner" | 0:55 |
23. | "Song of the Ant" | 0:43 |
24. | "I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail" | 1:51 |
25. | "Evil Rhythm" | 1:47 |
26. | "She Says Hello" | 1:01 |
27. | "The Little Robot Girl" | 2:11 |
28. | "I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again" | 2:15 |
Personnel[]
The Magnetic Fields[1]
- Stephin Merritt – ARP Axxe synthesizer, Veillette Avante 12-string acoustic guitar, banjoleles, cigar box ukulele, electric guitar, Mellotron, Moog instruments, Octave Cat synthesizer, unprogrammed drum machines, vocals
- Sam Davol – wine box cello, Infinite Jets
- Claudia Gonson – vocals, one-hand piano, cigar box percussion
- Shirley Simms – vocals, three-chord autoharp, Omnichord
- John Woo – unamplified electric guitar, cigar box guitar
Other Personnel[1]
- Chris Ewen – prepared piano, Mellotron
- Benny Grotto – Optigan percussion
- Daniel Handler – accordion, celeste
- Pinky Weitzman – cigar box violin, Stroh violin
Charts[]
Chart (2020) | Peak position |
---|---|
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[13] | 27 |
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Magnetic Fields – Quickies". Discogs.
- ^ "The Magnetic Fields". Nonesuch Records.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Magnetic Fields:Quickies Album Review". Pitchfork.
- ^ "Magnetic Fields Quickies Vinyl Box Set Now Available". Nonesuch Records.
- ^ "Album of the Year Review". Album of the Year. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Metacritic Review". Metacritic. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Thomas, Fred. "AllMusic Review". AllMusic. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Christgau, Robert (September 9, 2020). "Consumer Guide: September, 2020". And It Don't Stop. Substack. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ Pickard, Joshua (May 21, 2020). "Beats Per Minute Review". Beats Per Minute. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Haughey, Ryan (May 15, 2020). "The Magnetic Fields Master Short but Sweet Storytelling on 'Quickies'". Exclaim!. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Horton, Ross (May 28, 2020). "MusicOMH Review". MusicOMH. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Wilson, Seth (May 14, 2020). "The Magnetic Fields's Quickies Is a Deft Collection of Mini-Character Studies". Slant Magazine. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2020. 23. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- Nonesuch Records albums
- The Magnetic Fields albums
- 2020 albums