The Magnetic Fields - Distortion

Imagine an evening, filled with TV and popcorn. You hear a big crowd chanting outside but you ain’t got energy enough to stand up and go take a look outside. Or maybe you’re used to this stuff since they established a stadium just across the street and not only football matches is held there, but it shows warm welcomes to music gigs that tend to perform once in a while! At first the sound made you nuts and scream out your guts out of the window for your citizenship rights are brutalized. But now, you’re just… worn out. So, you just mute your Discovery Channel and listen to the sound outside. It’s a band called The Magnetic Fields singing funny songs from far away.
That’s probably what it feels like when you listen to The Magnetic Fields’ new “experience” called Distortion. And that’s quite what it is, but not distortion like you used to hear in Sonic Youth and Nirvana but one that’s coming out of some romantic songs. Jesus And Mary Chain: yes, I know. Stephin Merritt is definitely tired of hearing this name. But when you’re compared to something else the minute you show up anywhere, you can never escape the “something else” label attached on your ass! But the thing is, The Magnetic Fields are frankly more entertaining than Jesus And Mary Chain. If you disagree, just listen to their 1999 69 Love Songs. Stephen Merritt’s too baritone voice sings ironic lyrics with such indifference that you’re bound to accept them. In Distortion, Merritt shows too much bravery. This could be a huge failure (hey this is indie music boy, there’s just no such thing as failure and terrible! They merely call it experience). Merritt and Claudia Gonson are bringing you 13 new songs right from the mentioned stadium. They didn’t have enough sound equipment to record a clean version of their live act but at least you’ll generally hear what the concert was about. And they have done their best for their song durations not to exceed three minutes because they don’t believe in a ten minute hallucinating journey of nothingness! And they’ve also brought you melodies, but so not polished! And then there’s noise, from the kind you used to avoid! (Unless you’re into Sonic Youth or Raveonettes) But here, you barely want to avoid it, since Distortion is all about noises in the background, sometimes they come up the surface and then they return to their places. Then you remember you were really waiting for such a thing, so you forget about how pointless the pink cover art is and for the first time in your whole life as a music listener you really DO want to hear something out of a sport complex! Distortion is daring.

MP3 Download: The Magnetic Fields - California Girls