i find myself agreeing with both sides on this argument; it is an astounding, clever, moving album but also very inconsistent partially due to its extreme variety of approaches to songs about love. Most of the time I only want to listen to the tracks that I have pulled out, put on my PC, or mp device but sometimes i feel compelled to listen to the whole thing, like looking through a photo album after a break up.

Nearly three hours of music. Who is able to hear it in whole? If someone listens to all this probably will not do this again

Yes, I would agree that it is not perfect, but the overall concept saves it. Listen to the thing in its entirety and feel appallingly naive and inexperienced in life and love. Also if you ever need to come up with a masterpiece of the "post-modern" this is it: mosaic of various different styles, confusing notions of art as serious (high concept album) and art as fun and a joke (high concept album named for a sexual position).

Ridiculously underrated. Having this as the 6th best album of 1999 is outrageous, 6th best of all-time would be closer to the truth.

I love it too Johnner, but only after I cherry pick it and make my own compilation. I think to say it's a perfect album from start to finish is crazy. It's definitely flawed.

There are absolutely no fillers on this lp and in my opinion this is the nearest you will get to pop perfection. I don't find the fact that there are 69 love songs included here impressive but that Merritt manages to sustain this level of quality over the ensuing 3 hours. Complaining about this masterpiece is akin to complaining about how over rated the aurora borealis is.
In short, what you've got here is 69 perfect pop songs about how love can reduce to tears or hysterics, and more importantly realise how ridiculous and crushing falling in and out of love can be. What more do you want?

The concept is interesting and its undeniable that Merritt is able to explore so many different genres and styles that it creates a trully eclectic atmosphere without loosing cohesion. That being said, I find out 25 extraordinary songs and 44 mediocre at best pieces with some of them being extremely pretencious on its minimalism or lyrical content. Good album, overrated in the site though.

This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.

I suppose you could argue it's generic indie pop, although even that statement doesn't really hold true if you listen to the whole thing, as there are multiple styles and genres on it. But you think the songs are generic? I beg to differ. Stephen Merritt, as a songwriter, is anything but generic.

I'm with Outlaw on this one. Generic indie love songs--and too many of them at that. Maybe one day I'll take a liking to this album, but not now.