When I heard that this album doesn't break any new ground for Stephin Merritt, I decided to give it maximum 4 stars, no matter how good I would think it was. I love "69 Love Songs". It is one of my favourite albums of the last ten years. For a long time, I have intended to write a review of "69", but I don't think I ever will. It's a hard album to write about, and my English isn't good enough to do it justice.
With "i", Merritt has done the best thing he could possibly have done. To make a completely different album, just to prove he can develop, would be foolish of him, having such a gem of a 14-songs collection up his sleeve.
This album is so beautiful, it actually makes me cry. I don't cry that easily, and the last time I cried because of the sheer beauty of an album, was when I got acquainted to "Forever Changes" some years ago.
This album is pure gold from start to finish. It's an incredibly beautiful sounding album. No synthesizers. Cello, harpsicord and banjo dominates the soundscape. And what songs they are! Most songwriters would do anything to write songs like these. And Merritt makes it seem so easy, like he's writing these songs as effortlessly as picking leaves from a tree.
If I took my 14 favourite songs from "69" and made it into one personal favourite album, the result wouldn't have been much better than this. Yes, that's how good I think it is! For me, this is probably the album of the year. And it makes the best soundtrack for the summer of 2004 I could possibly have hoped for.
I seriously believe that Merritt is touched by the hand of God.