Obscurities is a compilation album by Stephin Merritt, released in 2011 on

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

. It consists of

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

s, compilations cuts, and various other previously unreleased material.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, ''Obscurities'' has a score of 74 out of 100, indicating that it has received "generally favorable reviews" from critics. The most positive review came from

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

, who gave the album an A− grade and wrote that he was "swept off isfeet by Merritt thoughtfully intoning some little green men's "Song From Venus.""

Track listing

#Forever and a Day #Rats in the Garbage of the Western World #I Don't Believe You #Plant White Roses #Rot in the Sun #The Sun and the Sea and the Sky #Yet Another Girl #Scream ('Till You Make the Scene) #The Song from Venus #Beach-a-Boop-Boop #When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There #Take Ecstasy With Me (vocals by Susan Anway) #When You're Young and in Love #You Are Not My Mother and I Want to Go Home

References

{{Authority control Stephin Merritt albums 2011 compilation albums Merge Records compilation albums Indie pop compilation albums