[.ca] House Of Tomorrow

time is a concept by which we measure our pain:
reviews of CDs that whine about playing time crack me up (see previous review below). that's not the point, kids. it's what the artists do with the time that's important. and what we have here is twelve minutes of pop magic. every song is a winner. this CD could be 4 minutes long and i'd still give it 5 stars. chew on that, clock-watchers.

all too brief:
Despite this ep having 5 songs, the playing time barely manages 12 minutes - not good value at the price. The songs, of course, are up to the usual Merritt standard, but it would have been better value for money if he'd included them on another of his albums (stylistically, there's not much to differentiate them from his other works). For avid fans only.

Id love to move in to the house of tomorrow:
If you measure how good an album is by the play time, Im guessing your playlist is made up of ...Stairway to Heaven, Heard It Thru the Grapevine and American Pie. Dont get me wrong, these three amazingly long songs are SUPER , but there are some really tasty tunes out there under 10 minutes long. This CD is holding 5 prime examples.... At one time I lived in a really small town and the big treat would be to go to chapel hill and hang out for a few days with pals. So me and my pals would pile into the car with snacks and soda and mix tapes and books and just drive and drive in hopes that something fun and exciting would happen. My friend patty had sent me a copy of a seven inch single that contained most of the songs on this album, and when we heard the amazing sound of Stephin Merrit and his brood it just blew us away. The first track on this CD is Young and Insane, and it instantly became our theme song. We would rewind again and again to hear the haunting lyrics ... "We're young and insane and we're running away for the summer..." It was just perfect. The other songs have the same hauntingly fun sound that you have grown to love the Magnetic Fields for. If you arent familiar with the magnetic fields, think of Cocteau Twins singing Phil Spector tunes. Its like a familiar warm blanket washed in a new sweet detergent. What could be better? Amazingly beautiful and fun stuff.

12 Minutes of Pop Perfection:
It may only be 12 minutes long but it is a perfect disc. Every song is a gem, none more so than the last song. Stephin Merritt writes better songs than anyone else even within the strict formal constraints of this disc(each song is built on a repeating chordal/rhythmic loop). Buy this and Holiday which is better than 69 Love Songs, as far as I'm concerned.

• Young and Insane
• Technical (You're So)
• Alien Being
• Love Goes Home to Paris in the Spring
• Either You Don't Love Me or I Don't Love You