The Magnetic Fields
Distortion

This record left our BRIAN D feeling happy.

Last from this cat for the week is the latest album from skewed pop classicists The Magnetic Fields. Stephen Merrits outsider pop has always been a hugely influential & original brand. And on newie 'Distortion' the production is in a kind of lo-fi echo chamber making me repeatedly splurt words such as 'Ariel Pink!' everywhere. There's a dirgy thanksgiving vibe to proceedings here, his rich voice becoming all Neil Hannon at times when he's not doing that skewiff Beach Boys thing. This is far from his electro pop days, rather relying on shimmering guitar, muddied percussion, twinkly piano flourishes & a healthy level of 'distortion' (hahaha) to give the 13 tracks an air of disassociation & haziness. This is possibly his 'industrial homelessness' album, the sound from the streets. The tunes will definately get under your skin for he is a master songwriter indeed & this album represents an effortless progression in sonic terms

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What their label says...

TRACKLISTING: 1 Three Way, 2 California Girls, 3 Old Fools, 4 Xavier Says, 5 Mr Mistletoe, 6 Please Stop Dancing,
7 Drive on Driver, 8 Too Drunk to Dream, 9 Till the Bitter End, 10 I'll Dream Alone, 11 The Nun's Litany, 12 Zombie Boy,
13 Courtesans,

OVERVIEW: Distortion, Magnetic Fields' second Nonesuch album, will be released on January 14th and features the brilliant melodies and wry lyrics that composer and band leader Stephin Merritt has long been praised for, but, as the album title suggests, he serves them up with a twist - startlingly enveloped in layers of live feedback that recall the noisy pop provocations of The Jesus and Mary Chain. In an early preview of Distortion, Uncut wrote, ‘What a curious & excellent album, all round’. The NME has described it as ‘A masterpiece’. As album producer, Merritt takes a completely novel approach to his deployment of feedback, going well beyond mere fuzzed-out guitar to incorporate cello, piano and accordion into his mad-scientist mix. What he's conjured up is a gorgeous drone that reverberates over the length of 13 tunes - from the exuberantly rocking opener, 'Three Way', to the soused, sing-along lament, 'Too Drunk To Dream', to the bittersweet closer, 'Courtesans'. It's like hearing a great three-minute pop classic from someone else's car radio in the middle of a traffic jam: melodic bliss surfacing above the din. Stephin Merritt's work attracts a wide-ranging audience, from connoisseurs of the American Songbook, for which Merritt is arguably making some serious contributions, to indie rock fans who admire his innovative use of chamber instrumentation and his deadpan humour. 'Distortion' joins an already eclectic catalogue of Merritt-helmed projects on Nonesuch: Magnetic Fields' debut, 'i', The Gothic Archies' 'A Tragic Treasury', Stephin Merritt 'Showtunes', a compilation of works composed for the theatre; and the soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated film, 'Pieces Of April'.

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