Best left to languish in ‘Obscurity’

There’s a drawl accompanied by monotones and oddities throughout this macabre mix album. “Obscurities” is a compilation of 14 unreleased songs from Magnetic Fields’ main man Stephin Merritt’s earlier years, so there is quite a variety to the sounds offered.

The album compiles techno, acoustic guitars and maracas thrown in beside slow beats. The main problem is that some of the songs are in a very low key that doesn’t suit Merritt’s voice, and many of the nicer-sounding songs just don’t have good lyrics.

The first track, “Forever and a Day,” was written as Merritt’s answer to horrible wedding songs. This droning tune is a hard listen and is not the answer for any wedding song. But “The Sun and the Sea and the Sky” is a pretty story that will make you want to rewind and listen to the words more closely.

“Obscurities” evades historic awfulness only because a few songs make up for the droning drawl and uninteresting stories Merritt tells for most of the compilation.