Image from an advertisement for Smirnoff Vodka, 1972
The Magnetic Fields' "no-synths" trilogy ends with Realism, and this would come as a relief to some old-school fans of the band, except that Stephin Merritt didn't even bother to tell anyone that this was a trilogy he was working on until it was done. Beginning with 2004's i album, Merritt has worked with narrowly-defined concepts and structures in reaction to the everything-in-one-go 69 Love Songs that came before. Merritt has said that his career-defining triple album was him doing everything he knows how to do, so it's no surprise to see him using self-imposed strictures to deliver something different. Realism was supposed to be Merritt's "folk" album, a contrast to the JAMC-mimicking noisefest of of 2008's Distortion, but that label and a few other issues kind of make this album one that is hard to get into.
First, the "folk" tag is a red herring - the clean acoustic sound of Realism sounds less folky than other things Merritt has done (e.g. 69LS's "The One You Really Love") - it's closer to the "AM Gold" sound from the Merritt songs on the Pieces of April soundtrack. So that threw me off on my first listen, as did the much-commented-upon similarity between the opening track of Realism and "I Don't Believe You" from i. The number of showtunes-style songs also caught me off-guard (I was expecting folk songs!) - the songs with female lead vocals are the main offenders. I loved Shirley Simms' contributions to previous albums, but her singing sounds weird and stilted on "Interlude" and "Painted Flower". The album's other jokey songs are those that feature gang vocals - "We Are Having a Hootenanny", "Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree", and "The Dada Polka" can easily be written off as novelty songs. I was ready to write Realism off because I couldn't get past these issues, but then I ran across a few insightful comments about the album that made me go back and give it another listen.
I don't usually look for hidden themes in Merritt's albums, but there's an interesting depth and unstated theme to Realism that makes it a much more interesting album to me. Merritt has said that he originally considered calling his last two albums True and False, but he wasn't sure which label to give to which. How could the clean, unadorned songs of Realism be "false"? Perhaps it's because it's a set of songs dealing with distortions of reality (a theme not found to the same degree on Distortion). The delusion of the opening track, "You Must Be Out of Your Mind", is right there in the title, but there are subtler distortions throughout the album. There is no real hootenanny going on, the dolls' tea party is not what it seems, and the painted flower is ... well, it's a painted flower. The key song that brings it all together is "Better Things", the album's strongest song and a statement of purpose that would serve the album better if it wasn't buried in the album's second half. In this song, three fanciful creatures (a mermaid, a ghost princess, and a wolfboy) are set in contrast to "real birds" in a way that raises the question, "What parts of Realism are really real?"
I may never embrace the trifles of Realism on the same level that I've loved other songs that Merritt has written, but I appreciate the trompe l'oeil he's created. And now that I find it interesting, I'm listening to Realism a lot more often and enjoying it more.
"We Are Having a Hootenanny" by the Magnetic Fields
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