The Magnetic Fields - 'Love at the Bottom of the Sea'
The Magnetic Fields - 'Love at the Bottom of the Sea'
The Magnetic Fields
“Love at the Bottom of the Sea”
(Merge)
There are some who believe that authenticity is a virtue in music—that the best songs are true stories and instruments should sound natural. This writer disagrees with this notion that all music should strive for authenticity and would even go so far as to say that it can limit creativity.
This stance squarely sides with Stephin Merritt, the creative mind behind The Magnetic Fields, who embraces the artificial and the non-personal. The excellent new album from The Magnetic Fields, “Love at the Bottom of the Sea,” is the first since the completion of the group’s “No Synths” trilogy, so the synthesizers (loosely defined here as pretty much any electronic-sound-making device) are back with a vengeance, making the album most similar to earlier keyboard-laden pop efforts such as “Holiday” and “The Wayward Bus.” Merritt wisely avoids the well-trod ’80s revival synth-sound territory, using meticulously tweaked and distorted notes alongside acoustic instruments like the cello and tuba. Merritt, who sings with a deep, low voice, employs long-time collaborators Shirley Simms and Claudia Gonson for lead vocals on various tracks.
Merritt has frequently shown a penchant for gender-bending lyrical fabrications, and this album features the extremely catchy “Andrew in Drag,” about a bigoted straight man who falls in love with a fleeting, non-existent woman who is actually his straight male friend cross-dressing for the first and last time. While certain previous albums featured loose themes, this album does not; however, if there is a vague thread, it’s a certain type of twisted sense of humor and comical indignation—which has seemingly replaced the lugubrious Morrissey-style, gloriously depressing lyrics of earlier times—in songs with hit men (“Your Girlfriend’s Face”) and adultery (“My Husband’s Pied-à-Terre”). It’s apparent that Merritt’s artificiality has another advantage: impunity. As he told the webzine Drowned in Sound, “I like torturing my characters. And since they don’t exist, it’s harmless!”