i was the devil himself

As one would quickly notice reading a lot of my posts, I get kind of obsessive about music during the summer, particularly the elusive summer jam, which, I might add, I'm still not sure I've found. Less contentious but equally important is the summer album. Which leads me to ask: is having a summer album that's 14 years old acceptable? 'Cause I'm digging the shit out of The Magnetic Fields' 1994 album The Charm of the Highway Strip, which has been on my ipod since 2005. Somehow I had not listened to it until last week and there's not much more I can say about it than country + pop + synthesizers + Stephin Merrit = musical erection. Sadly I was unable to locate free mp3s of the two standout tracks on the album, "Born on a Train" and "Two Characters in Search of a Country Song" (note to self: figure out a way to access my mp3 collection remotely), but I did find "Fear of Trains", which, while nowhere near the awesomeness of the former, is still pretty frakking sweet and is a good introduction to the album.


The Magnetic Fields, "Fear of Trains"