Slate Calls The New Magnetic Fields Album “Spectacular”

“Stephin Merritt, the governing consciousness of the long-standing musical unit The Magnetic Fields (among others), has always come across as one of that most reticent tribe,” opens Slate’s review of the new Magnetic Fields album. “He generally telegraphs that he considers expressing his ‘true feelings,’ in principle, nauseating.” 50 Song Memoir is therefore surprising, because it consists of more than four dozen autobiographical numbers. According to Slate, however, the album is “spectacular.”

The review posits that “Merritt is a songwriter—maybe the only one?—who does his finest work in the more than two-hour anthology format.” Over quite a few words, the review traces the themes of the album while placing Merritt in a canon of confessional songwriters that includes Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, and The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. Read the full thing here and check out “’71: I Think I’ll Make Another World” below: