NPR Reviews 50 Song Memoir by The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields‘ new 50 Song Memoir is quite dense, which is why NPR‘s new review of the opus is so useful. Reviewer Barry Walters has given the record several thorough listens, and his review gives listeners a blueprint of the journey they’ll take as they listen to a song written for every year of frontman Stephin Merritt’s then-50-year life. It’s a lengthy read that comes to a satisfying conclusion, declaring that “beyond the circularity of his favorite subjects, love and music, 50 Song Memoir is ultimately about transcending… Through hard work and strikingly singular talent, its author elevates himself out of absolute poverty, and somehow manages to write dozens of playful and often hilarious songs about it all. …More importantly, Memoirs is a tour-de-farce of melody and arrangement. Festooned with all sorts of freaky squeaking yet frequently as catchy as Top 40, it’s the avant-garde in service of eternally youthful pop. It’s also the opposite — juvenilia in honor of hard-won maturity.” Check out the video for “01 Have You Seen It in the Snow” below:

Read the review right here, and get 50 Song Memoir in your rotation now!