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Featured Release
The Magnetic Fields
Realism
With no synths, no drum kits, and every instrument unplugged, the pristine Realism is the flip-side to the brash noise-pop of The Magnetic Fields' 2008 Distortion. Singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt calls it "folk," but with its wide range of instrumentation and orchestrated arrangements, says Merritt, "Realism is a more kaleidoscopic approach to a genre.” The BBC calls it "absolutely prime Merritt." The vinyl album releases on February 9.
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The Magnetic Fields
Realism
With no synths, no drum kits, and every instrument unplugged, the pristine Realism is the flip-side to the brash noise-pop of The Magnetic Fields' 2008 Distortion. Singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt calls it "folk," but with its wide range of instrumentation and orchestrated arrangements, says Merritt, "Realism is a more kaleidoscopic approach to a genre.” The BBC calls it "absolutely prime Merritt." The vinyl album releases on February 9.
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The Magnetic Fields
Please Stop Dancing EP (MP3s)
For this MP3 EP, "Please Stop Dancing," from The Magnetic Fields' 2008 album Distortion, is paired with an alternate version of the album's "The Nun's Litany": a previously unreleased session cut with Stephin Merritt taking over vocals from Shirley Simms, who sings it on the album.
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The Magnetic Fields
Distortion
Wry lyrics combine with fuzzed-out guitar, cello, piano, and accordion for "bubblegum melodies in a bouquet of barbed wire" (MOJO); Stephin Merritt and Shirley Simms (69 Love Songs) trade off on lead vocals. Nonesuch Store bonus download with CD or vinyl: "The Man of a Million Faces," Merritt's solo song for NPR's Project Song. LP version includes complete album on CD and MP3.
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The Magnetic Fields
i
The Magnetic Fields’ Nonesuch debut is darkly witty, ingeniously arranged, and conspicuously synth-free. NPR’s All Things Considered called Stephin Merritt’s songs “disciplined little gems of composition, poison-pen letters set in the first person ... Even under Merritt's dour storm clouds, they gleam.”
