The Magnetic Fields' new album "Distortion"

Got my ticket to the Thursday NYC show today. Merritt is one of my favorites, and I even liked i, but I have a feeling that this will probably be the worst Magnetic Fields album yet. The Tragic Treasury was not very good, and it seems he's slipped into a bit of a rut. I will be happy to be proven wrong though.

Not enough Midwest!

Chicago people, what on earth is the Old Town School of Folk Music?

The title makes me want to hear it.

Old Town School of Folk Music is a community music school that has one of the nicest sit down mini-theatres in the city (about 400 capacity)...thus the 6 shows there.

Distorion is actually quite good. Its taken me some time to get past the wailing feedback throughout most of the album (think Jesus & Mary Chain), but the songs are strong.

Wait, was that a joke? That almost makes me want to hear a new MF album.

What? Wailing feedback?

Yeah.

That description made me really excited. I hope its true... Have they sent out promos then? (not that I'd get one..)

I hope they play some UK shows.

remember to turn off your mobile phones lest stephin slap you silly

I saw them at RFH last time. Claudia Gonson gave a silent demonstration of how to turn a phone off before they began. The first three songs were then ruined by the pro photographer's shutters.

It's true about the distortion. It's Barbed Wire Kisses for the Chickfactor set. It's actually very awesome.

Barbed Wire Kisses is for the Chickfactor set, though not all of them know it.

Seriously, this sounds fantastic and thus I'm going to assume you all are playing some kind of conceptual prank until I actually hear the record.

The dainty feedback was part of the reason "It's only time" was the best song on i - so... encouraging!

Wow, i was expecting (dreading) Scott Walker more than J&M Chain, but fine with me!

I'm all for audience members who let their phones ring being slapped. I volunteer to enforce this. Thursday show in NY for me too.

are there synths on this one?

Distorion is actually quite good. Its taken me some time to get past the wailing feedback throughout most of the album (think Jesus & Mary Chain), but the songs are strong.

????????????

the first time i'll enjoy a Mag Fields album?

holiday was pretty well fuzzed up and ronettes-y though. so it's not unprecedented. i've got to say that this sounding not-in-the-least like i is heartening

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15859351

Synths and (tenor?) electric guitar, and easy on the harpsichord.

x-post I was just posting that

The Merritt song he did for NPR did not sound that distorted. You can see/hear the short version, or watch the long making of version. The short version sounded like a typical Merritt melody-

Tracklisting? I'm curious now if he does any Crash covers on it (given the J&MC thing).

Are promos out for this yet? It's not out for 2 months+ and in these Oinkless times I'm not convinced by the JAMC stuff until I hear it.

what are the lyrics like, alleged promo-holders?

I need this. ASAP.

'i' was pretty disappointing, so I'm not holding out high hopes for this. I am holding out high hopes for the Chicago shows, though, although I suspect they won't live up to the only time I saw them before, which was all of 69LS in London 6 years ago. Sounds like it'll be a great venue, anyway.

lol @ "wielder of flails and maces"

Album opener "Three-Way" up on Stereogum:
http://www.stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new-magnetic-fields---three-way-stereogum-premiere.html

holy crap that's actually a great great song. love the sound, it's straight Psychocandy/Barbed Wire Kisses, whoever posted that above wasn't kidding. and it sounds fucking excellent. this is the most i've ever enjoyed a Mag Fields song, easily.

yeah, you should buy up tickets for the tour and then give the people who buy them from you on eBay a free kick in the nuts.

okay will do, thanks for the heads up!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/khowrd/ddrkid.gif

in other news, i dug up the cover art for this one and man, is it disappointing:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Toh8ONZLL._SS500_.jpg

Hmmm. It's Magnetic Fields Get Loster - with all that implies. I like "Too Drunk To Dream".

Get Lost is my favorite Magnetic Fields, so that sounds pretty good to me. Is that really the cover art? Yipes.

zoiks! It's from Amazon, so it's probably legit. I HATE IT!

Stephin Merritt regarding the new album, out on 1/15 through Nonesuch: "I don't know if anyone has done feedback piano before. The whole record has feedback acoustic piano. We put the amplifier directly up against the frame of the piano and turned it up enough to start feeding back."

My God "Three-Way" is good.

I'm not really feeling what's so great about it. It's prob just that this band is really not for me anymore.

I always end up using the skip button at least a few times on every Magnetic Fields album, even Get Lost. Taken as a whole, 69 Love Songs still stands as their greatest achievement, but only because you can take the best songs off of all three discs and make one killer 60 minute long album.

So, all I'm hoping for with Distortion is a few mixtape worthy songs, just like all their previous efforts.

I think there was a more appropriate thread, but I can't find it. Anyway, great recording of a show from 1994:

http://www.captainsdead.com/2007/12/08/wearing-a-turtleneck-is-like-being-strangled-by-a-really-weak-guy/

Listening to it right now, Toby, thanks for this!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2235/2108527687_3144737c3e_o.jpg

California Girls

my god that song is pretty good

whole album is ace

I'm liking it way more than i so far. Sounds kinda muddled, but I'll take that + fuzz. Nothing totally jumping out at me yet, but it's a keeper.

why didn't they release "Mr. Mistletoe" as a Christmas single?

(haven't heard anything yet)

"Too Drunk to Dream" wins, I think.

Every song is between 2:42 and 3:08 long, with 9 of them being between 2:58 and 3:03. I can't help but think this is by design, for whatever strange merritesque reason.

I really really like this album!!!

the great thing about the Magnetic Fields is that when I hear a song by them I like I listen to it 50 times in a row (and I never do that with any other band) and then I never have to hear it again

this album is really zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

first lyrics ever to include "ordure"?

GF gave this to me for Valentines. Mostly, I think, 'cuz she wanted it, but I love Merritt too, so that's okay. It's great! I'm listening to it for the first time right now, so what do I know, but I like every song so far. "I Hate California Girls" is the standout (oughtta conclude with drawing drool and coke on web pix instead of just assaulting someone, but whatever), and "Three-Way" nothing but a statement of intent, but this is easily Merrit's strongest batch of songs this side of 69 Love Songs. Wonderful production, too: both a legit J&MC homage and a super-accessible pop strategy.

Yeah, the design is truly horrible, but that's the only bad thing I can think to say about this.

Missed the chance for Seattle tickets. Boo.

Last night’s show was great. There was an acoustic version of Future Bible Hereoes ‘Lonely Robot’ and SM played a bass mandolin for the entire show. It was weird.

I read SM sings "Nun's Litany"

Distortion does get a bit flabby around the middle (don't we all). Still, 1st impression = very strong.

Anybody ever see Mag Fields or the Sixths do "Heaven In a Black Leather Jacket"? Love that song.

Though Merritt drops Psychocandy as the inspiration, and it makes sense, I mainly hear an updated version of the early Mag Fields sound: tinny, synthy (even though "no synths" were apparently involved), distant. Which is probably why it works so well. I guess others have already mentioned this.

Love the way the last 3 songs compliment each other: "The Nun's Litany" = joke about wanting to live a sluttier life, from a sexless vantage, wistful underneath. "Zombie Boy" = funny, gross joke ("No blood ever drips / when I widen your holes"). "Courtesan" = genuinely sad joke about wanting to live a sluttier life, from the vantage of someone who knows how much love can hurt.

On second thought, the voice in "Nun" and "Litany" are one and the same. Nun isn't really a nun, just someone who's been burned and retreated. 1st song emphasizes the joke, 2nd the pain underneath.

Some of the songs toward the middle of the album still seem weak. Too drab ("Mr. Mistletoe") or too jokey/bouncy ("Too Drunk to Dream").

Talking to myself here...

"Too Drunk to Dream" is a mild letdown after the intro.

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/02/16/dark_valentines_from_stephin_merritt/

I'm not sure I'd ever heard of a bazouki...

They seemed a tad listless in the first half last night, things improved greatly later -- "opening night" jitters?

SM as nun, goody. Somehow I had missed the "get off like squirrels" line in "California Girls" til last night.

It's a good line. Ups the bitter-grapes factor.

I'd forgotten how great they are live. They're never going to mean as much to me again as they did 8 years ago, I suspect, but they got pretty close last night. The album has really grown on me, too - at least half of it is really good, which is a pleasant surprise after i.

Agree, Contenderizer, that it's excellent, and your thoughts are interesting - though don't agree about 'Heaven in a Black Leather Jacket' - I can't stand the version of that on Wasps' Nests, at least.

I think 'Drive On, Driver' is the under-remarked gem here. Shirley swings.

The sentiment of 'California Girls' I find too trite to admire the song that much, though I like the way it keeps pausing near the end. Lots of other good things on the LP too, though not, to these ears, 'Zombie Boy'. 'Please Stop Dancing' is another highlight, actually.

This is definitely not the first record to use the word 'ordure'.

I saw the late-night show on Saturday night: basically a song or two from every Merritt album and side project.

Love them live, love the songs, and still haven't heard an album of theirs that I've liked.

'Mr Mistletoe': I like the fact that Merritt tried to write a Christmas song, but something feels flawed about this - and I think it's the melody. It's uncertain, undefined; he's not sure where to end the lines, perhaps doesn't want to sound too obvious, ends up sounding like he's still sketching a melodic draft, with nothing very consistent or neatly fitting ... it becomes oddly hard to remember the actual tune of this song - and how often could you say that of Merritt?

as for 'Courtesans': it's distinguished by its carefully, and I think genuinely, touching words, but also enhanced by that twangy distant lead guitar playing what I suppose is a ... yes, a counterpoint to the melody. And I quite like the way the distortion here is a throb which is out of any rhythmic relation to the tune (though in saying I quite like such a thing, I fear that I'm buying into a kind of dilettantish / arrangement-centred formalism that Merritt himself, for one, has long espoused. *Why* do I like it? I'm not sure; maybe something about the interesting multiplication of coexisting elements, times, rhythms within a track?).

California Girls is completely beautiful live, to the extent that I think it's now my favourite on the album. Mr Mistletoe on the other hand I can remember nothing about.

They are playing some of it live, today.

I thought Dr Morbius didn't like Music !!!

gah, we lost our babysitter and i magnanimously offered to stay at home and look after junior. tickets in the 3rd row. humph. if anyone hears of tickets going for friday......

that's a pity, cw -- goodness, the surprise trials of parenthood.

how do squirrels get off, then? I have no idea.

Just generally speaking, pinefox. I make exceptions for bands who started recording before 1997 or who I used to drink with.

October US dates:

http://houseoftomorrow.com/calendar.php

this album ain't great.. probably his least memorable effort ever, excepting the rather great 'california girls'

Yep. Distortion was an ouchie. I listened to it several times, remembered nothing, put on Get Lost once to make sure it didn't ruin the rest of their albums, and then promptly wiped the memory of Distortion away.

This album is terrific, one of his very best.

Let's see. From top to bottom,

• 69 Love Songs
• The Wayward Bus
• Distant Plastic Trees
• The Charm of the Highway Strip
• Get Lost
• Distortion
• i
• Holiday

If I include the other records I know, and knock Distortion up a notch, then

• 69 Love Songs
• The Wayward Bus
• Distant Plastic Trees (in a way not much to choose between these, could be reversed)
• The Charm of the Highway Strip
• Wasps' Nests
• Distortion
• Get Lost
• Hyacinths & Thistles
• i
• Memories of Love
• Holiday

In fact, I love Distortion !!!

is holiday really that bad?? i'm going to have to re-listen. i remember it being pretty good!

I know, most people like it. It has a couple of tracks I really like: 'Deep Sea Diving Suit' for starters, and I won't knock 'Take Ecstasy With Me' now. But otherwise it seems to me crammed with relative duds - 'In My Car', 'In My Secret Place', 'Sugar World'? - and even the top tunes in the first half are really not that top. Honestly, 'Swinging London' is one of the most overrated Merritt numbers - the verse with that keyboard is pretty horrible. 'The Flowers She Sent' is better actually. But still, even if we grant it lots of bonus points, it's better than OTHER people's LPs yes, but is it better than the others in that list above? I don't think so. It's not that it's terrible, just that it's average / weak work by a genius - that's my angle on it, which I have never heard anyone agree with.

Gosh I love Distortion! Even 'Mr Mistletoe' has grown on me so!

Please Stop Dancing ! Sublime!

Drive On, Driver !! Absolute twang!!

Hot diggety this feels like one of the GREAT Merritt records !!!

Putting Holiday that low is mental! Especially when I exists.

I agree, i is unusually weak; but other than i I do not see any Merritt record (certainly any TMF record) as weak as Holiday.

Do you eally prefer Holiday to Get Lost, Distortion, 69LS, the first 2 LPs, TCOTHS? Or to Wasps' Nests or even H&C? I don't.

eally, Really

It's Only Time is my current favourite Mags song so i leap to the defence of i.

Do you eally prefer Holiday to Get Lost, Distortion, 69LS, the first 2 LPs, TCOTHS? Or to Wasps' Nests or even H&C? I don't.

To the first two records - yes. To TCOTHS - yes. To Distortion - probably. To 69LS/Get Lost - no. To WN and H&C - definitely.

Then again I don't think I've totally "got" most of the records that I prefer Holiday to. Probably I should listen to them more.

'It's Only Time' is a magnificent masterpiece, and one of the reasons that i is worthwhile - but can a 14-song LP be thoroughly justified by one song?

No. It is an amazing song, though.

Holiday is great!

wau, it's a grower

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/12/the_magnetic_fi_6.html

p dope forgot i even had it in my itunes then nun's litany shuffled on out. but its charms are def low key

rip pinefox i guess