Rating: NNN
After a three-album sabbatical from synthesizers, indie pop group the Magnetic Fields bring back the instrumentation integral to their most beloved material on this concept-free collection. These pithy pop songs playfully explore the many side effects of love – spitefulness, infatuation, murder and mariachi among them.
The disc starts strong with three gleefully skewed POVs on love: upbeat abstinence anthem God Wants Us To Wait, homophobe-in-love ditty Andrew In Drag and chipper revenge fantasy Your Girlfriend’s Face. But what follows is never quite as memorable, pointed or emotionally complex as that opening volley. Chief songwriter/singer Stephin Merritt shifts his attention to more tried and true territory, reciting – along with singer Claudia Gonson – rueful rhymes over layer upon layer of analog effects.
It’s enjoyable enough, but the potency of Merritt’s wit is gradually sapped by one wheezy, sluggish melody too many.
Top track: God Wants Us To Wait
