I’ve been thinking about how to review Distortion, the newest offering from The Magnetic Fields, for several months now. I still don’t have a good hook, but all that thinking has helped to clarify my answer to a related question: I think I’ve finally figured out why 69 Love Songs remains far and away my favorite Stephin Merritt record.
I’ve run through a number of ideas (its audacious premise, the wide variety of styles, etc.) but I think the real answer is far more prosaic. Put simply, there are so many songs that I can very easily overlook the ones that just don’t work. So 20 of the tracks don’t do anything for me? So what, there are still a good 50 that do. And sure, only one song in 10 blows me away, but that translates to 7 or 8 spread out of the whole thing.
Because when I think about it, that’s really the ratio for pretty much any Stephin Merritt project. We can hem and haw over the details, discussing whether each particular conceit works, what it adds to the base stock of Merritt’s pop, how the guest vocalists (or lack thereof) change the record. But ultimately, the balance remains more or less the same. But 69 Love Songs can boast “No One Will Ever Love You,” “A Long Forgotten Fairytale,” “Papa Was a Rodeo,” “Abigail, Belle Of Kilronan,” “I Think I Need A New Heart,” “Acoustic Guitar,” “I Don’t Want To Get Over You,” and plenty of others. On the other hand, The Charm of the Highway Strip, just to pick one, has only two truly fantastic tracks (“Born on a Train” and “Two Characters in Search of a Country Song”). And the roughly one-quarter of the songs that don’t appeal to me as much stand out more because they’re more difficult to hide.
Thinking about it this way, my feelings about Distortion fall into place pretty easily. It holds true to form, featuring one gem of a song that absolutely blows me away (“The Nun’s Litany”), a few more where the theme is given plenty of space to work itself out in the context of a beautiful pop song (“Drive on Driver,” “California Girls,” “Please Stop Dancing,” “Too Drunk to Dream”) and a few songs that I’ve given the obligatory half-dozen listens but will probably skip from now on (“Xavier Says,” “Mr. Mistletoe,” “Zombie Boy”).
I realize that’s a very formulaic response to an album I really enjoy a lot, but I’m having a hard time getting anything more emotional out there. I like the idea of using all distorted instruments and I like how it emerges thematically not just in the sound but also in the lyrics. My friend Aimi (an absolutely enormous Magnetic Fields fan) has suggested that the album works better if you listen to it backwards. Which I think is true, but which I think actually reveals an underlying strength. Distortion is very much about the deconstruction of sound and theme – I don’t believe it’s meant to be experienced in exactly the same way even twice, much less every time. Rebuilding it, sampling bits and pieces, getting lost occasionally, it’s all part of the magic.
Two final notes. First, this is probably the funniest Magnetic Fields album. Songs like “The Nun’s Litany” and “California Girls” are biting, witty, and dry. Second, I am beyond excited that Shirley Simms is back. The songs where she sings are almost to a one superior than the ones Merritt takes himself. She’s always been my favorite of the rotating cast of singers and it’s great to hear her get a whole album to shine.
The Nun’s Litany – Magnetic Fields
Drive On, Driver – Magnetic Fields