In celebration of the 25th anniversary of its release, the Magnetic Fields are continuing their two-night performance of the entire 69 Love Songs album in its entirety, during a Spring 2025 USA and Canada tour run. The full concert runs over the course of 2 nights.
Originally released in 1999 on Merge Records, 69 Love Songs is a beloved 3-disc masterwork that marked a significant breakthrough for the American band. This tour brings the full record live on tour for the first time in over two decades.
Written and recorded entirely by Stephin Merritt, 69 Love Songs garnered universal acclaim at its 1999 release, landing on best of year-end lists in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, SPIN, LA Times, and The Washington Post, and received notable praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, Stereogum, and much more.
The Magnetic Fields are the brainchild of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Merritt, who also releases albums as the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. With the Magnetic Fields, he has written, produced, and recorded 12 albums to date. He composed original music and lyrics for three music theater pieces directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, and in 2008, mounted an Off-Broadway stage musical of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, for which he won an Obie Award. Merritt composed the score for the Academy Award-nominated film Pieces of April and for the independent film Eban and Charley. Merritt’s song “The Book of Love” was performed by Peter Gabriel and appears in the film Shall We Dance, as well as in numerous other films and TV shows. Merritt has composed incidental music for the HarperCollins’ audio books of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.
The Magnetic Fields will perform 69 Love Songs as it was originally performed in the early 2000s: In full order over 2 nights, with one half of the triple-disc album performed each night. Featuring multiple singers, the band delivers signature orchestral-pop arrangements with cello, ukulele, guitars, and keyboards.