The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Believe in the Sun

"I don't believe in the sun. How can it shine down on everyone ... and never shine on me."

Album: 69 Love Songs (6th album)
Genre: Indie Folk
Recorded: 
Album Release: September 7th 1999
Single Release:
Length: 4:17
Producer: Stephin Merritt
Vocalist: Stephin Merritt
Label: Merge Records

Official Audio

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: Over 2.5 million
YouTube Music: Over 900 thousand

Instruments

Bass, drums, guitar, piano

Details

• 'I Don't Believe in the Sun' is, on the surface, a depressing breakup song. It takes the morose lyricism of the freshly heartbroken to new heights through the inclusion of such nuggets as "the moon to whom the poets croon has given up and died, astronomy will have to be revised" and "it's night-time all day and it's usually raining too." As if permanent night wasn't bad enough.
  
  The simplicity of the lyrics are a deliberate attempt to parody the uneding deluge of songs about love and heartbreak that dominate the charts. The excessive length of '69 Love Songs' works to the same end, as if the songwriter is proving how easy it is to write such records.
  
  
• Stephin Merritt wrote the album in a dingy gay bar in New York called Dick's. Dick's is a great name for a gay bar, due to its similarity to a certain throbbing member, which is probably the point, but maybe the bar was simply owned by an inopportune guy named Richard.
  
  
• 69 Love Songs was inspired by the theatrical works of Stephen Sondheim.
  
  
• The album cover features a prominent number 6 and number 9 next to each other. The numbers, are, of course, a mirror image. This is a, perhaps unintentional, visual representation of the albums core meaning, that it's the same but different. The albums is about love songs, or songs about love songs, but not as you're used to hearing them. They are love songs ... with a twist.
  
  

Artwork