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Distortion
 
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Distortion

~ The Magnetic Fields
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
Price: £9.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Frequently Bought Together

Distortion + 69 Love Songs + i
Price For All Three: £27.94

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  • This item: Distortion ~ Magnetic Fields

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
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  • 69 Love Songs ~ Magnetic Fields

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  • i ~ Magnetic Fields

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Product details

  • Audio CD (14 Jan 2008)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Nonesuch
  • ASIN: B000YCLRBU
  • Other Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 48,267 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Extraits
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Three-Way 3:00£0.69
Listen  2. California Girls 3:00£0.69
Listen  3. Old Fools 3:00£0.69
Listen  4. Xavier Says 2:40£0.69
Listen  5. Mr. Mistletoe 2:57£0.69
Listen  6. Please Stop Dancing 3:00£0.69
Listen  7. Drive on, Driver 2:49£0.69
Listen  8. Too Drunk to Dream 2:58£0.69
Listen  9. Till the Bitter End 3:02£0.69
Listen10. I'll Dream Alone 3:04£0.69
Listen11. The Nun's Litany 2:58£0.69
Listen12. Zombie Boy 3:03£0.69
Listen13. Courtesans 2:59£0.69

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of pop’s most skilful musical conceptualists, Stephin Merritt’s new album Distortion has been hailed as an attempt to build an album in the mould of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s feedback-strewn debut Psychocandy--although naturally, there’s also another reason: Merritt is a sufferer from "hyperacusis", a sensitive hearing condition, and these sweet-sung songs of love, alcohol, and heartache are designed to give you a glimpse into his experience of sound. If the thought of songs played through a curtain of shrill distortion is an upsetting proposition, fear not–-you’ll return with eardrums intact. Rather, the high-end is just an eccentric sort of frame for some of Magnetic Fields’ more approachable, arch, and all-round loveable songs. "California Girls", sung by collaborator Shirley Simms is shimmering West Coat pop spiked with strychnine ("See them on the big bright screen/Tanned, blonde and seventeen ... I hate Californian girls"). "Too Drunk to Dream" is a sashaying ‘60s pastiche that finds Merritt extolling the virtues of a life spent "shitfaced", while "The Nun’s Litany" sees Simms playing a woman of the cloth that dreams of shedding her habit: "I want to be a topless waitress/I want my mum to shed one tear". --Louis Pattison

Uncut 23.11.07
"Distortion" is great, though - and so much more satisfying than most indie chancers who try and co-opt the Reid brothers' (Jesus and Mary Chain) initial peerless formula of Spectorish bubblegum melody....What a curious and excellent album, all round." John Mulvey


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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Some won't like it, but, this is a great album...., 17 Jan 2008
By Mr. Mark David Romano "Jangly Mark" (Swansea, Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This album has has Jesus & Mary Chain comarisons left right and centre, but, for me, it's much more than that. The difference being that early JAMC wrote punk-pop songs, then immersed then in screeching feedback.

This album employs a similar tactic, but, the feedback is soft focus, recalling My Bloody Valentine, or even Slowdive as much as the JAMC.

The production is nearer that of early Magnetic Fields albums such as 'Distant Plastic Trees', but with soft voices over loud-ish music. Despite that, it is a POP! (with big letters - POP as in great catchy songs written from the heart, as opposed to X Factor) album. The more poppy it gets, the better it gets!!! 'Too Drunk To Dream' is Merritt at his best, pondering his own broken heart, along with one he lost, or can't have, and concluding that the only way to get rid of the pain is to get completely wasted. We've all been there. The typical Merritt themes are the same as ever - after over a dcade, would anyone expect otherwise...

'California Girls' sounds saccarine sweet, but, is a dig at a certin type of girl...

I could go through this album song by song...but, instead, I'll say that this is a brilliant album....if you're already familiar with The Magnetic Fields, this is essential. If not, get '69 Love Songs' first, then get this album...
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Fuzzy Logic, 17 Jan 2008
By Sordel (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
The Magnetic Fields' 2004 album, i, may have been pretty good, but no one seemed to care because it wasn't 69 Love Songs. Such is the weight of expectation and excitement created by that three-disc pop masterpiece that Stephin Merritt may as well have packed up and gone home right there in 2001. Instead, he has stubbornly hung around, crafted some bizarre, unlikely music, and now: this.

Distortion sells itself, apparently, on the basis of being inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy. What the albums have in common is that the songs may be inherently poppy but are seen through a haze of instrumental distortion. Given, however, that co-vocalist Claudia Gonson has one of the sweetest voices around (here sounding more uncannily like the late lamented Kirsty MacColl than ever) and Merritt himself never exactly growls, the idea is doomed almost from the start. The distortion sounds like exactly like what it is: a gimmick stuck on in an effort to work up some listener enthusiasm for another album sent shivering into the world under the shadow of former glories. The thin, demo-quality production that is one of the Fields' persistent characteristics has never sounded so faded and inappropriate.

Dump the central conceit of the album, however, and at least you're left with some good songs. Especially noteworthy are "Til The Bitter End", which marries an electropop feel to a gorgeous, serpentining melody and "I'll Dream Alone", which has a little of the grandeur of the Walker Brothers. "Courtesans" - a yearning, undeveloped ballad that closes the album - comes close to profiting from the application of fuzz, but by this point the experiment is so bankrupt that it is too late to make a difference. When Merritt is capable of such striking melodies it is just frustrating to hear them wasted.

This isn't a grit-your-teeth, fans-only album like Merritt's solo Showtunes was, but it's nevertheless a worrying sign of decline. It's difficult not to feel that the baton of avant pop master has now conclusively passed from Merritt to Sufjan Stevens. New listeners skip back in the catalogue for more persuasive demonstrations of Merritt's songwriting: The Charm of the Highway Strip is pretty good if you feel that 69 love songs is too many.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Positive Feedback, 24 Jan 2008
To those of you familiar with the Handicapping system in horseracing, it is as if the music industry's powers-that-be have issued Messrs Merritt et al with an ultimatum regarding Distortion. Upon hearing this remarkable aural tapestry they would appear to have ensured that the Fields would drench every song with feedback in order to take away some of the listener's glee & create a level playing field for those less talented (mostly everyone else). Upon first listen I suspected that they had suceeded, until the melodies burst through the cracks like Edelweiss and led me to, unwittingly, turn a deaf ear.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars What's 69 Love Songs Got To Do With It?
I apologize for the pun, but it has to be said that if 69 Love Songs proved anything, apart from Stephin Merritt being a prolific and witty song-writer, its that genre doesn't... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. G. C. Cutter

4.0 out of 5 stars Distorted and Distinguished
The whirring, droning distortions providing a carpet for the songs on this album do without doubt evoke memories of the Jesus and Mary Chain's debut. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Dudley Serious

2.0 out of 5 stars wilfully disabled.
Merritt is a lyrical god, there is no doubt about that. He's blessed with a natural genius for pairing exquisite words with catchy tunes yet - sometimes unwilling to 'just be what... Read more
Published 16 months ago by St. Mym

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthy addition to the Magnetics collection.
Its not that good that you you should be rushing out to get it right now but its got some good points to it. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. D. Thompson

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