Magnetic Fields

The earliest albums released by the Magnetic Fields (in particular, 1995's Get Lost) featured burbling synthpop in the vein of OMD and Soft Cell, long before such new-wave influences were prevalent or trendy. Perhaps that's why Distortion, the eighth Magnetic Fields release and a fantastic return to these electro roots, feels so nostalgic. Soft-glow reverb coats the album's songs — think Phil Spector's lush Wall of Sound or the Jesus and Mary Chain's early days — which makes them fuzzy with wistfulness and regret, like a collection of sepia-toned photos. Layers of cloudy, minor-chord keyboards drive "Xavier Says," while "Please Stop Dancing" sounds like the Human League on a cloudy day and "Too Drunk to Dream" is a typical Stephin Merritt musical-theater vamp which begins with him monotoning, "Sober, life is a prison/Shit-faced, it is a blessing/Sober, nobody wants you/Shit-faced, they're all undressed." Merritt's clever gender- and genre-bending lyrics aren't quite as shtick-laden as on past releases — although the inscrutable "Three-Way" (whose only lyrics are, natch, a cheery shout of "Three way!") only needs new-wave beats and jaunty desert-gulch guitar riffs to be the catchiest thing on the album. Indeed, Distortion is by far the poppiest collection of songs Merritt's released since 69 Love Songs — partly because of the songwriting, and partly because Merritt lets Claudia Gonson (technically a more proficient singer) take lead vocals on more tunes. And when he does sing, his droll, wizard-on-high vocals exhibit glorious world-weariness — as on the taffy-pulled "Mr. Mistletoe," a wonderful sad-clown tale about trudging into the twilight of life.