Magnetic Fields - Distortion
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Magnetic FieldsEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2008-01-15
Music Label: Nonesuch
Soundtracks:
- Three-Way
- California Girls
- Old Fools
- Xavier Says
- Mr. Mistletoe
- Please Stop Dancing
- Drive On, Driver
- Too Drunk To Dream
- Till the Bitter End
- I'll Dream Alone
- The Nun's Litany
- Zombie Boy
- Courtesans
Free Music Notes for Distortion
Free Music Review: I Love It!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I don't disagree with the other reviews. I'll add though that I think the album is beautifully realized,
if certainly a departure in 'tone' and sound for MF. I thought 'I' (despite some fine moments) was at times too precious and pessimistic without sufficient thematic or sound variation, or enough leavening humor and irony. I think 'Distortion' though has great balance. I hope long term fans can get beyond-- or even embrace-- the loud sound feedback effects and weigh the album on its own merits. It does evoke Jesus and Mary Chain, but isn't slavishly imitative either. The clever/complex way it's put together and holds together even recalls for me Nilsson's best '60's work like "Nilsson Sings Newman," if not of course sounding the same. Some of lyrics (not unusual for Merritt of course) evoke as much Sondheim or Brecht/Weill as contemporary power pop. This album, like all his best stuff I think, is as much about the form of pop music as the content: he's one of the very best at deconstructing and reconstructing those forms. Early yet-- but I think this may rank just below '69 Love Songs' in my estimation, which means it's great!! I'm loving this more with each listen.
Distortion Poster
Distortion, Magnetic Fields? second Nonesuch release, 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. If the late, great Cole Porter had somehow been resurrected just in time to appear at the Coachella indie-rock fest, the results might sound something like this ?"small, ironic tales of love and woe," as National Public Radio has described Merritt?s songs, startlingly enveloped in layers of live feedback that recall the noisy pop provocations of legendary Scottish quartet The Jesus and Mary Chain.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.
Merritt?s doleful baritone is employed to great effect on the brooding, lonely-guy balladry of "Mr. Mistletoe" and the horror moviemeets-romantic comedy of "Zombie Boy." But he swaps lead vocal chores throughout Distortion with Shirley Simms, a singer who longtime fans will recognize from her performances on the Magnetic Fields? career-making 1999 three-disc set, 69 Love Songs. Merritt calls Simms? voice "as pop as pop gets" and gives her some of the cleverest numbers, including "California Girls," a Beach Boys-style anti-anthem about murderous envy, and "The Nun?s Litany," a chastely rendered list of extremely naughty fantasies.
Stephin Merritt?s work attracts a wide-ranging audience, from connoisseurs of the American Songbook, for which Merritt is arguably making some serious 21st Century contributions, to indie rock fans who admire his innovative use of chamber instrumentation and his deadpan humor. Tickets to Magnetic Fields? winter ?08 American tour, a series of residencies in several major cities, sold out upon announcement and more dates have been added to meet the demand. NPR chose Merritt as the first artist on its new All Songs Considered feature, Project Song, in which a performer is given a specific picture and phrase and challenged to compose and record a new song about them within 48 hours; Merritt?s "Man Of A Million Faces" is now available at npr.org, along with video clips of the song-making process. Distortion joins an already eclectic catalogue of Merritt-helmed projects on Nonesuch: Magnetic Fields? 2004 Nonesuch debut, i; The Gothic Archies? A Tragic Treasury, a collaboration with Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler; Showtunes, a compilation of works composed for the theater; and the soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated film, Pieces Of April.
The Magnetic Fields Photos
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More from the Magnetic Fields
 69 Love Songs [BOX SET] [LIMITED EDITION] |  i |  Holiday |
 Get Lost |  The Charm of the Highway Strip |  The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees |
 69 Love Songs, Pt. 1 |  69 Love Songs, Pt. 2 |  69 Love Songs, Pt. 3 |
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