Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields were one of the first indie bands I discovered, back on the old beloved Audiogalaxy site.  It was a beautiful cross between Napster and Allmusic.com, that site - everything was organized by genre, with descriptions of the band, and then you could download the most popular songs.  Completely illegal, alas...

The Magnetic Fields, more than a lot of bands, hooked me early with their lyrics (alright, it was the cello hook in "All my little words" on the chorus, but it was also the words of the chorus, and then "All the Umbrellas in London").  But at the time, I wasn't a fan of electronic music, and so the early Magnetic Fields stuff where they had a more eighties pop sound I ended up avoiding.

I was listening to my Zune (yes, I know) today, and cycling through MF stuff, and it occured to me how many of my favorite songs are their early songs, now.  "Desert Island," "Why I Cry," and "When you were my Baby" are all right up there.

I don't know what caused this change - at what point I forgave the eighties for being the eighties.  I do know, that gradually I've decided I can't simply write an entire decade off, and have discovered that a) there was a lot of great non-electronic guitar based pop in the eighties, i.e. the Church, the Smiths, and b) that there was a lot of great electronic pop in the eighties.  I've come way around on New Order, and I think it's because of new bands like MGMT, Mates of State, and Franz Ferdinand.

Also, I don't think I could hate a song for long with the lines "I'll be your desert Island, where you can be free/I'll be the vulture, that you can catch and eat."