Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Magnetic Fields-Distortion



I really like The Magnetic Fields. Have for quite a while. Back when I got into "Indie Music" or whatever their Holiday record was an early discovery. I dug it and have dug every Magnetic Fields record I have since acquired. Which is all of them. Until this, their latest, Distortions. Well, I don't hate it or anything, but i'm very "meh" on it.

In recent interviews Mr. Magnetic Fields himself Stephin Merritt has stated that he feels the last true innovation in music was The Jesus & Mary Chain's debut record Psychocandy. And while I totally love that record I must disagree here. That record came out in 1985 so what he's saying is that in the 23 years since (a time which includes Magnetic Field's entire existence) there haven't really been any major developments in music. So this leads us to his new record, aptly called Distortion.

What we have here is a bunch of not very catchy Magnetic Fields songs, most of which aren't even sung my Merritt all covered in a sheen of J&MC scratchiness. I'm just not digging it. I really like Magnetic Fields a lot and this album has really disappointed me. I don't know there just doesn't seem to be any reason for the scratchy noisy effects. Maybe Stephin just spilled his coffee on the mixing board when they were mastering the record and decided to keep it. Wrong decision mister!

1 comment:

palejoe said...

...this is shite..end ov story....beligerent a-hole makes anything he damn well pleases..& thinks he can judge the state ov contemporary muzak....disliked immensely...both musically & personally....but really wot has come out equal to 'PsychoCandy'?? or a number ov other albums released ova 15-20 years ago...listen to wot i'm sayin' here..i emphasise 'listen'...sonically...