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The Magnetic Fields – “I Wish I Had an Evil Twin”

Good Zack: I’m not a fan of The Magnetic Fields in any particular sense, but this is a brilliant, brilliant song. It taps into an almost universal sentiment – each person’s version of a fearless, impulsive self that is free from the self-imposed restraints that govern our behavior. Our own personal Tyler Durden, the version of ourselves that would have spit out that insult, thrown that punch, that would have pounced on the opportunity to cheat (in either sense), and that would have done so with such brazen disregard for the consequences that there probably wouldn’t have been any. Stephin Merritt doesn’t want an evil twin that physically exists, what he wants is to unleash his own id and its blissful indifference to the concepts of empathy. When he murmurs, “all my life, there should have been an evil twin,” he’s not just envisioning a version of himself who can act out his fantasies of conquest and revenge, he’s also yearning for the ability to compartmentalize his guilt and jettison his remorse.

Bad Zack: Oh, please. Let’s recognize this song for what it really is – a paean to cowardice. Stephin Merritt is too weak to face up to the confrontations in his own life, so he sits back and fantasizes about someone else doing his dirty work for him. It’s interesting that an anti-war liberal like Merritt would engage in the same type of hypocrisy he undoubtedly condemns in his political opposites – namely the predilection to cheerfully send others off to fight battles on his behalf, while claiming moral superiority for having remained removed from the fray. (more…)