Stephin Merritt, currently on tour with The Magnetic Fields performing 50 Song Memoir, recently took director Barbara Anastacio on a tour of his home in Hudson, New York, for the latest episode of the Nowness series My Place. "If I'd known they'd be tacking on buzzy trumpets," says Merritt, "I would have enunciated and declaimed." You can watch it here.
Stephin Merritt, who is currently on tour with The Magnetic Fields performing 50 Song Memoir, recently took director Barbara Anastacio on a tour of his home in Hudson, New York, for the latest episode of the Nowness series My Place. "If I'd known they'd be tacking on buzzy trumpets," says Merritt, "I would have enunciated and declaimed." You can watch it below.
50 Song Memoir chronicles the 50 years of Stephin Merritt's life with one song per year. He sings vocals on all 50 songs and plays more than 100 instruments, from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics are nonfiction—a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis). Available in five-LP and five-CD editions including a 100-page book with an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone book with a full-album download card. It's "quite an achievement," says NPR. The Wall Street Journal calls it "a highly entertaining summary of pop culture of the past half-century ... 50 Song Memoir is a treat."
To pick up a copy of 50 Song Memoir, head to iTunes, Amazon, or the Nonesuch Store, where CD, vinyl, and lyric book orders include a download of the complete fifty-song set at checkout.
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