THE MAGNETIC FIELDSRealism
(Nonesuch)
**** ½ (out of 5)
“You can’t just go around saying stuff because it’s pretty,” sings Stephin Merritt on the opening track of the new album from The Magnetic Fields — and he’s right. If it’s going to make it onto a Magnetic Fields song, it needs to be funny too. And whimsical. And heartfelt. And ironic. And just a little bit melancholy.
Realism is a companion piece to the Fields’ 2008 album Distortion, which many people admired for the way Merritt changed up the band’s sound, enveloping the songs with a thick layer of Jesus and Mary Chain fuzz. I wasn’t one of them, however. It all seemed arbitrary and distracting to me, and so I couldn’t be more pleased to hear Merritt returning here to the simpler, more childlike instrumentation of 69 Love Songs — sometimes literally childlike, with toy pianos and music boxes figuring prominently in the mix. The sound might be a little brittle and tinny for some ears, but it’s anchored by the warm, mournful wit of Merritt’s voice and lyrics. (“Seduced and abandoned and what can I do?” goes one chorus. “I think I might drink a few / And maybe the baby will, too.”)
Interestingly, it’s the tracks with the most precious-sounding titles — “The Dolls’ Tea Party” and “Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree” — that contain the most bitingly satirical lyrics. “If they don’t like you, screw them!” goes one line from the latter song... and if you don’t see what’s special about The Magnetic Fields, well, screw you too.
0 Yorumlar