It's called "Eban & Charley," it's an odd, independent film soundtrack,
and it's already for sale.
The seven closing minutes of wind-and-rain noise are a clue this indie soundtrack isn't another 69 Love Songs, the Magnetic Fields' brilliant three-disc set of 1999. Stephin Merritt, the gloomy voiced romantic who leads the Fields, the 6ths and the Future Bible Heroes, stamps his own name on an album for the first time -- a slightly perverse decision, given the maddening atmospheric music-box sound effects of "Cricket Problem" and clock-chimes version of "O Tannenbaum."
For James Bolton's debut film, about a friendship between a 29-year-old ex-soccer coach and a 15-year-old boy -- both gay -- Merritt briefly revisits linear songwriting for the tormented ballads "Some Summer Day" and "Poppyland." The latter, about a city of happy butterflies and haunted dreams, is Merritt at his best, a perfect balance between bubblegum pop and clinical depression in musical form. Although the experimental between-song instrumentals may frustrate anybody who hasn't seen the movie, Eban & Charley works nicely as a stopgap between Merritt's more substantial projects.
I read about it in Columbus Alive, while digging up links for the Comics thread on Joe Sacco's "Palestine."
As a soundtrack, Eban & Charley is a prickly listen at first approach. Stage Rain, the album’s closer, is no more than clanks among the sound of a shower, and Cricket Problems is a whirling of wind-up toys and music boxes set to an interspersed drum machine beat. Mood pieces for specific scenes to be sure.
But nestled among the thistles are half a dozen pop gems of the sort that have so often earned Merritt adulation. Some Summer Day, Poppyland and Maria Maria Maria would not seem out of place on 69 Love Songs. On This Little Ukulele, Merritt sings, “I wish I had an orchestra behind me,” but the diminutive backing seems entirely appropriate for the just more than a minute masterpiece. Same for Tiny Flying Player Pianos, played on a toy piano.
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