Deep Sea Diving Suit - Magnetic Fields
2:05
Holiday, 1994
Written by Stephin Merritt
In this song, the narrator uses the metaphor of a diving suit to stand for estrangement and the lack of connection with a love gone wrong. "I'm sorry, but how can I get to you / Stuck in my fifty-pound lead boots / Stuck in my deep sea diving suit?" It's a quintessential early Magnetic Fields track, where Stephin Merritt’s deadpan wit collides with deceptively buoyant melodies. Built around a spare, plinky synth-pop framework with drum-machine beats, the song has the feel of a toy orchestra gamely marching underwater. The arrangement is skeletal but charming: bright keyboard lines bob against a gentle, thumping rhythm, and the Merritt's detached yet plaintive vocals lend the song a curious mix of irony and ache, his patented tongue-in-cheek melancholy, like he's too cool to feel real despair.
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