Stephin Merritt will release a new record next year.
A communiqué pinned to the news page on Merritt’s website read:
"The Magnetic Fields are happy to announce that their new album, titled Distortion, will be released on Nonesuch Records on January 15, 2008.
“The band will perform a small number of U.S. tour dates in February and March. Specific details regarding venues and ticket pre-sales will be announced shortly."
Very much to the point. Distortion is Merritt’s first record since his solo effort Showtunes in 2006, and the first Magnetic Fields album since i in 2004.
Click here to listen to ‘The Meaning of Lice’; Merritt’s contribution to last year’s Plague Songs compilation.
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Last Chance Saloon for Stephin
For me this is Stephin's last time to show that he didn't shoot his load with 69 Love Songs. Nearly everything before that (Get Lost, Charm Of The Highway Strip, the first Future Bible Heroes album) was excellent, yet everything after that magnum opus has been disappointing, listless and even unlistenable (Showtunes).
erm
'i' was amazing. The Gothic Archies album was the best pop album ever.
Opinions, opinions...
I thought i was a very bland rehashing of past glories. Bar I Thought You Were My Boyfriend, which is probably the best synthpop song ever to not actually feature any synths. The Gothic Archies album had its moments, but it's easy to follow Merritt's decline, since the songs have been recorded in chronological order, one every year. He keeps recycling melodies and the lyrics feel like empty excercises in formalism: all wordplay, no heart.