Magnetic Fields

Stephen Merritt goes power pop with class, combining the Magnetic Fields' home-spun indie rock with lo-fi distortion. Sometimes the results sound as if Quentin Crisp was singing in the shower while an old Jesus and Mary Chain tune wafts through a transistor radio. That is no swipe -- the songs on Distortion are as witty, literate and oddly touching as usual. "California Girls" is as cutting as the Beach Boys' classic was heartfelt and "The Nun's Litany" is yet another Merritt song that employs both his '80s synth-pop fixation and his cheeky desire to shock.

The Magnetic Fields ground to a near halt once postmodern Manhattan tunesmith Stephin
Merritt proved his facility with the 69 Love Songs triple CD in 1999. After a decade that
featured five auspicious CDs and then three great ones four years in the making, as well as
side projects like the lisp-risking 6ths, this decade has been mostly side projects: two
negligible soundtrack albums, more 6ths and Future Bible Heroes, the twenty-si... More >