Gay musicians tend to have an odd relationship with pop music and particularly the pop lyric. A hangover from darker times when being gay was even worse than being Dido, artists such as Neil Tennant and Morrissey ("Hatful of Hollow" is the second gayest record in pop, after Abba's "Gold") have tended to shun the direct statement in favour of role playing, innuendo and subtle lyrical games. Think of Morrissey's sexually confusing "Handsome Devil" or Tennant's archly titled "Rent".
Stephen Merrit, who effectively is the Magnetic Fields, may be open about his sexuality, but he still likes his games. Unfortunately, while Tennant and Morrissey have always come across as clever, Merritt comes across as clever-clever, which is much less attractive.
Hence "I" (follow-up to the high-concept, critically lauded "69 Love Songs") is an album comprised entirely of songs beginning with the said letter. This may well be a biting comment on the self-obsessed nature of pop, but it's also a rather irritating, prissy exercise. The same is true of the music, a fussy collection of sparsely arranged, self-conscious ditties (this is the only appropriate word) employing violins, cellos and harpsichords. It sounds a little like Cole Porter and a lot like early Divine Comedy.
It's also appallingly tasteful. At its best - the wry "I Looked All Over Town" - the songs are understated. At its worst - the funereal "I Was Born" - the songs are barely there. This is doubly annoying as Merritt is so clearly gifted. Capable of wonderful turns of phrase ("You think your youth a permanent truth" from "I Die") he is just as likely to sing something as grammatical but aggravating as "He'd send the pretty ones to me/ And they would think that I was he."
A few of the songs charm. The breezy "I Don't Believe You" is by far the best thing here, with a spry Gershwin-like melody and an enjoyably bitter theme. Elsewhere, "I Wish I Had An Evil Twin" is a deft and likeable fantasy blessed with some gorgeous key changes. But they are the exceptions and, in the end, it's impossible to love a pop singer who would call a song "In An Operetta".
