Album review: Magnetic Fields' 'Realism'

There are few albums that would rhyme gyroscope and kaleidoscope in a song called "The Dada Polka," but such is the Magnetic Fields' territory, where wide-eyed wonder is buttressed against a conceptual art movement and a pervasive sense of arch camp.

Conceived as a companion piece to 2008's "Distortion," songwriter-frontman Stephin Merritt's homage to the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy," "Realism" is a folk album that aims to test the ideas of authenticity and sincerity, which have been automatically associated with the genre since the first troubadour wandered the hills with a guitar.

The experiment of the Fields' ninth record sometimes rewards, but too often struggles for urgency and warmth. In the album's 13 songs, genteel instrumentation -- fluegelhorn, violin, the mildest tablas ever recorded -- tip-toes around stiffly polite vocal performances mostly from Merritt and Claudia Gonson. The liner notes pointedly state "no synths," but oddly enough, the stereotypically cold electronics that Merritt previously has used to great effect might've warmed things up.

In "We Are Having a Hootenanny," no one sounds like they're about to cut a rug any time soon. In "I Don't Know What to Say," Merritt's voice is so buried in the production, it threatens to slip under.

There are times where the detachment works. The closing number, "From a Sinking Boat," is a gorgeously sorrowful resignation. It's an instance where Merritt's disinterest sounds like self-protection, as if he were steeling himself for the impending loss.

-- Margaret Wappler

Magnetic Fields
"Realism"
Nonesuch Records
Two and a half stars (Out of four)

Comments

[fre23777]

"In "We Are Having a Hootenanny," no one sounds like they're about to cut a rug any time soon."

Why should it? The song is about the banality of Facebook. The tone fits the theme perfectly.

[nemo]

I saw them in San Francisco last night. Good show but they made the Cowboy Junkies seem like a speed metal band.