Image of the Magnetic Fields by Chris Buck
#17 Distortion by the Magnetic Fields (Nonesuch)
Stephin Merritt, the famously curmudgeonly songwriter behind the Magnetic Fields, loves rules. From the beginning of his musical career, Merritt has allowed his music to be shaped by its limitations. His first two albums had restrictions of necessity on them - The Wayward Bus and Distant Plastic Trees were recorded using the best sequencing software he had access to at the time - unfortunately, that software was the not-really-a-sequencer program Band-in-a-Box. As time went on, Merritt recorded an EP of songs each consisting of a single loop of samples and a record of synth-based country songs. On his breakthrough project, 69 Love Songs, his only rule was to write 69 love songs covering as many genres and kinds of love as possible. The success of this release demonstrated well that Merritt's now self-imposed limitations were resulting in music that caught people's attention.
Since 69 Love Songs, Merritt has ratcheted up his rules. He adapted two Chinese operas into Broadway showtunes. His last album, i, was composed entirely of songs starting with the letter "I", presented in alphabetical order. It was also the first of what he claims will be a trilogy of "no synth" albums, an odd choice for a composer that has made such effective use of synths in the past. His second "no synth" album is this year's Distortion, the challenge of which was to write a set of standard songs and present them in the most distorted way possible. Every instrument on the album, except for the drums and vocals, has had natural distortion added to it through studio tricks. The result is an album that sounds exactly like the description above - the distortion is applied liberally but smartly so the songs are never completely lost in the haze.
Having said that, though, one problem I have with the record is that the lyrics are hard to make out at times. This is only an issue because Stephin Merritt is one of the best lyricists working in music today, and it's frustrating to have to strain to follow the words. I was listening to "Zombie Boy" yesterday and thought I was mishearing the third verse - I checked the album lyric sheet and discovered that the lyric is actually, "I heard when you cried/and I answered your knocks/Let's make you a bride/with another two cocks." That's not the kind of line I typically miss during a whole year of listening to a record.
And "Zombie Boy" brings up another minor issue I have with Distortion, and that's a slight dip in Merritt's consistently excellent songwriting quality. Several of the songs are pretty much throw-aways in my opinion. "Three-Way", the album's opening track, is an instrumental which would be fine from a songwriter who leans heavily on strong lyrics. The exaggerated pathos of "Till the Bitter End" and the jokey "Zombie Boy" are also pretty weak. And, I admit that this is a very personal quibble, but "Mr. Mistletoe" is a Christmas song, and I just don't like Christmas songs thrown into the mix in otherwise non-holiday-related albums. So that's four songs out of thirteen that just don't do anything for me - this was a ratio of joke songs to real songs that was tolerable on a longer project like 69 Love Songs, but I expect more consistency from Merritt's more economical projects. This is only a "slight dip" in quality, though, because the rest of the songs are uniformly excellent and a definite step up from his last album. Take "I'll Dream Alone" - it starts with a distorted guitar line that sets up the verse melody, punctuated by less-distorted piano stabs. The verse is short and makes good use of Merritt's baritone to set up the soaring chorus with its lovely female backing vocals, a classic but slightly slowed down girl-group drumbeat, and a low-level feedback buzzing in the background. Hopefully, the third installment of the "no synth" trilogy gives Merritt a chance to step up his game again with another unique set of songwriting handcuffs.
"I'll Dream Alone" by the Magnetic Fields
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