THE MAGNETIC FIELDS

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS: The merits of being Stephin Merritt

By: MATT ASHARE |
Published: March 13, 2012 http://www2.the-burg.com/entertainment/2012/mar/13/magnetic-fields-merits-being-stephin-merritt-ar-1763614/

The Magnetic Fields, Love At the Bottom of the Sea (Merge)

Stephin Merritt is arguably the greatest, or at least most prolifically constant songwriter of his generation. There are others — Ryan Adams comes to mind — who have inundated fervent fans with more than the average bear's worth of tossed off material under various monikers. But rarely has Merritt sacrificed quality for mere quantity. He has, however, crafted dozens upon dozens of songs over the past two decades, recorded and released on albums under a number of different guises. He may have began his career as the humble frontman of The Magnetic Fields, but that's only the most readily recognizable nom-de-pop under which he's plied his craft, a craft that's included the acclaimed, ambitious 1999 three-disc set 69 Love Songs, which delivers exactly what it promises: three baker's dozens worth of songs about love of all sorts set to music that touches on nearly as many genres.

       He followed that up with i, an album of 14 tracks that begin with the letter "i"; the fittingly titled, noisy guitar-driven collection Distortion; and the largely unplugged Realism, completing a double trilogy of sorts that seemed to prove he and The Magnetic Fields could be comfortable working in just about any medium or mode. As if that weren't enough, he's found time outside of the band to write tunes for indie luminaries like Sebedoh's Lou Barlow, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley, to sing on two discs credited to The 6ths, to offer his bubblegum-pop take on goth in a spinoff group called the Gothic Archies, and to toy with electronic dance grooves in Future Bible Heroes. Oh, and he's also dabbled in Chinese musical theater with director Chen Shi-Zheng and provided music for the Lemony Snicket children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events.

       Let's just say that it would be mighty difficult to find anyone, outside of a guy like Randy Newman, with a more impressive resume. But if there's a drawback to being a kind of one-man Brill Building, it's that it can reduce songwriting to a scientifically mechanical process. And, that's pretty much the only problem with Love at the Bottom of the Sea, the new 15-songs-in-under-40-minutes salvo from The Magnetic Fields.

       The disc marks a return to the synth-heavy productions of the albums the band recorded leading up to 69 Love Songs. Meritt is still working with a crew that includes drummer/singer/all-around enabler Claudia Gonson, cellist Sam Davol, and guitarist John Woo, along with sweet-voiced chanteuse Shirley Simms. And his pointedly dry wit and wry disposition — let’s just say he's exceptionally drwry — remain very much intact.

       “Your Girlfriend’s Face,” for example, finds Simms singing rather dispassionately about taking out an ex-boyfriend and injuring his new love interest. Against a bleating backdrop of playful synths and an up-tempo dance beat, she innocently intones, “I’ve taken a contract out on you/I have hired a hitman to do what they do/He will do his best to do his worst/After he’s messed up your girlfriend first.”

       It’s certainly funny, in a morbid sort of way. And the rhymes are clever. But, like the spurned lover’s plan to have her ex buried alive on crystal meth, there’s something a little too cold and calculated here. The hooks are all perfectly positioned; the melody is nothing if not infectious; and the meter of the lines is spot on. And, yet, for all its appealing attributes, in the end it feels more like a genre exercise — a Gothic Archies novelty number — than anything else.

       It’s no accident that every track here clocks in at under three minutes — apparently, that was one of the parameters Merritt set for himself when he got to work on the disc. As the album unfolds, with Merritt himself delivering a sad yet never quite moving ode to unrequited infatuation (“Andrew In Drag”) in his affectless baritone, Simms tossing off the punny punchlines in “I’d Go Anywhere with Hugh,” and a chorus of voices “thumping to the pumping” in the robotically discofied “Infatuation (with Your Gyration),” a theme of sorts emerges. What we’ve got here is essentially a short sequel to “69 Love Songs,” replete a vaguely rootsy excursion (“Goin’ Back to the Country”) that includes zingers like “Let Laramie take care of me ’til they bury me,” the new wave-y “The Machine In Your Hand,” and a Latin-tinged ballad titled “All She Cares About Is Mariachi” that rhymes “hibachi” and “Liberace” with, yes, “mariachi.”

       Apparently, Merritt is still a firm believer in working within self-imposed constraints, even though he’s already acquitted himself quite well in that regard. When it pays off, on a song like the genuinely affecting break-up tune “Quick!,” there’s more than just method to this madness. But too many of Merritt’s feats of compositional prowess are beginning to ring hollow. It's as if, having nothing left to prove to the world, he’s got no one left to amuse but himself. If so, that's our loss, not his.