Memories of Love (Remastered)

The lyric sheet for Memories of Love is composed of a variety of wacky puzzles — anagrams, cryptograms, jumbles and the like — that you need to solve to get to the words. This sets the tone for the entire album — a playful collection of puzzlers that's more fun than the Sunday crossword. Stephin Merritt has a facility for twisting clichés and hackneyed images into delightful new shapes. This — along with his inherent tunefulness — puts him in the same league as songwriters like Robyn Hitchcock and Elvis Costello. "Death Opens a Boutique" is a case in point. It recounts the tale of a specialty shop that sells dangerous commodities such as poison, Black Plague and socialism to universal acclaim: "There was no reason to exist if you weren't on the mailing list." Merritt and Claudia Gonson share vocal duties, Gonson with her breathy and delicate chords giving perfect counterpoint to Merritt's dour delivery. And Merritt works with Christopher Ewen, formerly of Figures on a Beach, to create musical soundscapes that seamlessly blend electronics with acoustic instruments that have been treated almost to the point of being non-recognizable. The resulting tunes are surprisingly organic and, above all, catchy.