Product Description

Perennial indie-pop favourites The Magnetic Fields have, under the guidance of Stephin Merritt, been an influential actin US alternative music since 1990. 'Distortion' sees the band continuing their gentle experimentation, this time featuring hazy, distorted guitars at the fore (as the record's title suggests) as well as a detectable surf influence. This somewhat shoegaze-inspired approach to the record is reflected in the lyrical topics covered which, like previous records, are dominated by both negativity and wry humour.

Track Listing

1. Three-way
2. California Girls
3. Old Fools
4. Xavier Says
5. Mr Mistletoe
6. Please Stop Dancing
7. Drive On, Driver
8. Too Drunk To Dream
9. Till The Bitter End
10. I'll Dream Alone
11. The Nun's Litany
12. Zombie Boy
13. Courtesans

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47224 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-14
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of pop’s most skilful musical conceptualists, Stephin Merritt’s new album Distortion has been hailed as an attempt to build an album in the mould of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s feedback-strewn debut Psychocandy--although naturally, there’s also another reason: Merritt is a sufferer from "hyperacusis", a sensitive hearing condition, and these sweet-sung songs of love, alcohol, and heartache are designed to give you a glimpse into his experience of sound. If the thought of songs played through a curtain of shrill distortion is an upsetting proposition, fear not–-you’ll return with eardrums intact. Rather, the high-end is just an eccentric sort of frame for some of Magnetic Fields’ more approachable, arch, and all-round loveable songs. "California Girls", sung by collaborator Shirley Simms is shimmering West Coat pop spiked with strychnine ("See them on the big bright screen/Tanned, blonde and seventeen ... I hate Californian girls"). "Too Drunk to Dream" is a sashaying ‘60s pastiche that finds Merritt extolling the virtues of a life spent "shitfaced", while "The Nun’s Litany" sees Simms playing a woman of the cloth that dreams of shedding her habit: "I want to be a topless waitress/I want my mum to shed one tear". --Louis Pattison

Uncut 23.11.07
"Distortion" is great, though - and so much more satisfying than most indie chancers who try and co-opt the Reid brothers' (Jesus and Mary Chain) initial peerless formula of Spectorish bubblegum melody....What a curious and excellent album, all round." John Mulvey

NME 8.12.07
"The NYC industro-showtune geniuses return with another masterpiece, this time sounding like Psychocandy: The Musical..."

Customer Reviews

What's 69 Love Songs Got To Do With It?
I apologize for the pun, but it has to be said that if 69 Love Songs proved anything, apart from Stephin Merritt being a prolific and witty song-writer, its that genre doesn't mean much to TMF: at the heart of whatever premise of style that's been chosen to dress up the music in is a knack for writing entertaining, occasionally sublime pop songs. To judge Distortion against the behemoth that was 69 Love Songs is a bit unfair because they're not quite the same thing: Distortion is a regular 45 minute long-player, the kind most bands release during their careers, whereas 69 Love Songs is a three hour artistic statement; a tour-de-force of songwriting that, lucky for us, 'hit' far more often than it missed.

The 'pared down' aesthetic extends beyond reduced running time: all of the songs are based on a simple electric guitar, bass, drums and piano format, with the occasional organ, played at feedback inducing volume; all the songs are sung alternately by Merritt and co-vocalist Shirley Simms, with the exception of mass 'shout-a-long' 'Three-way', and 'Please Stop Dancing'; and there isn't a synthesizer in sight (the biggest shock of them all if you ask me)!

As themes go, 'Distortion' is a suitably open-ended one that doesn't intrude on songwriting subject matter, doing away with the awkward constraints of their previous album 'I' whilst providing a unifiying aesthetic for Merritt's songs of millionaires, zombies, starlets and drunkards.

Most, if not all of the songs are excellent, but don't be surprised if you find the yourself singing the up-tempo 'California Girls', 'Drive On, Driver' and 'The Nun's Litany', all sung by Simms, whilst driving to work, doing the washing up, or whatever at the expense of the others. The tunes sung by Merritt tend to be of a more deflated, if not morose vein, suiting his deep, lugubrious voice as he sighs to 'Mr.Mistletoe', 'wither and die / you useless weed / for no-one have I'. But if there is one thing TMF do well, its hurt and lovelorn, and there is plenty of that on the album.

I won't go as far as to say that this is the best thing TMF have ever done: it probably won't shock too many die-hard fans, and will win some new ones hopefully. You certainly can't accuse the Fields of being inaccesible. The disappointing moments are those when Merritt chooses to fall back on simplistic repetition ('Please Stop Dancing') or hummable but uninspired melodies ('Till the Bitter End'), both of which smack of 'auto-pilot'. As for the generous helping of feedback that comes with the songs, well, I like it. Far from obscuring the lyrics, I think its always kept at a respectful level in the mix and rarely intrudes on the listening experience - except for one instance when it actually enhances it on the delicate 'Courtesans', a hazy pillow of sound which I sink into each time I listen to it. The couplet, 'if no-one loves them when they're old / they'll sit and count their chains of gold' kills me every time. I hold it as one of Merritt's greatest songs to date.

Distorted and Distinguished
The whirring, droning distortions providing a carpet for the songs on this album do without doubt evoke memories of the Jesus and Mary Chain's debut. Very house proud, those Jesus and Mary Chain boys; they hoovered the studio whilst recording their album. And a dust-free legend was born.

Like the Reid brothers, Magnetic Fields also have an ear for a tune so the tracks are all pretty melodic and some downright catchy. "Three-Way" is a triumphal, almost instrumental (bar the chanted title) entrance, leading into the humorous (and only a little venomous) "California Girls". If Johnny Rotten was the anti-Christ, Stephen Merritt must be the anti-Brian Wilson.

There is no shortage of wit and sharp observation in the lyrics generally. Frank Zappa (RIP) would have been proud. Some of the high points, lyrically and musically, as well as "Three-Way" and "California Girls" are "Too Drunk to Dream", "I'll Dream Alone" and "The Nun's Litany". One or two tracks do not quite make the grade, particularly "Old Fools" and "Mr Mistletoe". Magnetic Fields don't quite have Swans' magic touch with these more funereal numbers. But the album holds up very well overall and works best in its more uptempo and twisted (distorted, even!) pop moments.

wilfully disabled.
Merritt is a lyrical god, there is no doubt about that. He's blessed with a natural genius for pairing exquisite words with catchy tunes yet - sometimes unwilling to 'just be what he is' - he is also a tinkerer.

Here we have an album of passable songs rendered almost unlistenable, and largely unintelligible, by the artistic conceit of distorting every instrument (even the piano, as he proudly tells us). Frankly I don't care if the distortion is well done technically, or an accurate J&MC pastiche, or a 'return to the early MF style (it's not, those albums were at least mixed so that you could hear the words) - it just ruins well written songs. Perhaps Stephin is trying to give us a taste of what our applause over recent years sounds like to him (he suffers from the hearing disorder hyperacusis) in which case I applaud the high irony... but still don't like the practical result.

Anyone lucky enough to see the MF on the *non-distorted* tour for this album will be getting the Real Deal, this recording is a pale, wilfully disabled version.