- The Magnetic Fields【 8 albums 221 lyrics 】
- The Magnetic Fields (named after the André Breton/Philippe Soupault novel Les Champs Magnétiques) are an American indie pop group founded and led by Stephin Merritt. Merritt is the group's primary songwriter, producer, and vocalist, as well as frequent multi-instrumentalist. The Magnetic Fields is essentially a vehicle for Merritt's songwriting, as are various side-projects including The 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, and The Gothic Archies. While the musical style of the band is varied, its songs are commonly attributed to pop genres such as synthpop, indie pop, Baroque pop and noise pop. The band is often cited[citation needed] as being recognizable for Merritt's lyrics, which are often about love and with irregular or neutral gender roles, and are by turns ironic, tongue-in-cheek, bitter, and humorous.
The band released their debut single '100,000 Fireflies' in 1991. The single was typical of the band's earlier career, characterized by synthesized instrumentation by Merritt, with lead vocals provided by Susan Anway (and then by Stephin Merritt himself from The House of Tomorrow (EP) onwards). A more traditional band later materialized; it is now composed of Merritt, Claudia Gonson, Sam Davol, and John Woo, with occasional guest vocals by Shirley Simms. The band's best-known work is the 1999 three-volume concept album 69 Love Songs. It was followed in the succeeding years by a 'no-synth' trilogy: i (2004), Distortion (2008), and Realism (2010). The band's most recent album, 50 Song Memoir, was released in March 2017.
History
The band began as Merritt's studio project under the name Buffalo Rome. With the help of friend Claudia Gonson, who had played in Merritt's band The Zinnias during high school, a live band was assembled in Boston, where Merritt and Gonson lived, to play Merritt's compositions. The band's first live performance was at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1991 where they played to a sparse audience that was expecting to see the Galaxie 500 spin-off, Magnetophone.
The 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs showcased Merritt's songwriting abilities and the group's musicianship, demonstrated by the use of such varied instruments as the ukulele, banjo, accordion, cello, mandolin, flute, xylophone, and the Marxophone, in addition to their usual setting of synthesizers, guitars, and effects. The album features vocalists Shirley Simms, Dudley Klute, L.D. Beghtol, and Gonson, each of whom sings lead on six songs as well as various backing vocals, plus Daniel Handler (who has written under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket) on accordion, and longtime collaborator Christopher Ewen (of Future Bible Heroes) as guest arranger/synthesist. Violinist Ida Pearle makes a brief cameo on 'Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side'.
The band's recent albums, i (2004) and Distortion (2008), both followed the album theme structure of 69 Love Songs: The song titles on i begin with the letter (or, in the case of half the songs' titles, the pronoun) 'I', whilst Distortion was an experiment in combining noise music with their typically unconventional musical approach. The liner notes claim the album was made without synthesizers. According to an article: 'To celebrate the release of Distortion, Merritt and The Magnetic Fields played mini-residencies in cities around the country, culminating with six shows at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music.'
Realism was released in January 2010, concluding what Merritt termed the 'no-synth' trilogy (following i and Distortion). The next album produced would feature synthesisers 'almost exclusively'.
In 2010, the documentary film Strange Powers: Stephen Merritt and the Magnetic Fields made its debut in film festivals around the world. It was directed by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara. Shot over a period of 10 years, it discusses the formation of the band, Stephin's friendship with Claudia Gonson, the production of various albums, and Stephin's move to California from New York. It won the Outfest 2010 Grand Jury Prize for Feature Documentary and Starigrad Paklenice Prize for Directing.
The band was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform a rare festival performance at the All Tomorrow's Parties event that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
The band released its tenth full-length album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, on March 6, 2012 to critical acclaim. This album, sometimes compared to 69 Love Songs, brought back the use of a synthesizer. Merritt told fans on his website, 'I was very happy to be using synthesizers in ways that I had not done before. Most of the synthesizers on the record didn't exist when we were last using synthesizers.' The song 'Andrew in Drag' has garnered much attention, receiving play from entities such as CBS News and NPR's 'All Songs Considered.' In 2012, the Magnetic Fields celebrated its new album by launching a North American and European tour. It began on March 6, the release date of Love at the Bottom of the Sea, and continued for two months.
In 2016 it was announced that the band's eleventh studio album, 50 Song Memoir would contain fifty songs, akin to the 69 Love Songs concept, one to commemorate each year since Stephin Merritt was born. It was released in March 2017.
Members
Official members
Stephin Merritt – guitar, ukulele, keyboards, harmonium, melodica, lead vocals
Claudia Gonson – piano, drums, percussion, vocals, group manager
Sam Davol – cello, flute
John Woo – banjo, guitar
Shirley Simms – autoharp, ukulele, vocals
Other contributors
Current and former contributors include singers Susan Anway, Dudley Klute, Nell Beram, and LD Beghtol, as well as instrumentalists Johny Blood, Daniel Handler, Chris Ewen and engineer/producer Charles Newman and instrumentalist and singer Pinky Weitzman.
Discography
Main article: The Magnetic Fields discography
Studio albums
Distant Plastic Trees (1991)
The Wayward Bus (1992)
The Charm of the Highway Strip (1994)
Holiday (1994)
Get Lost (1995)
69 Love Songs (1999)
i (2004)
Distortion (2008)
Realism (2010)
Love at the Bottom of the Sea (2012)
50 Song Memoir (2017) - Sorted by ＞ Sorted by album (Time) Sorted by song name (Characters) Sorted by other
- Album name Release Date Song
-
50 Song Memoir
2017
1.'83: Foxx and I
2.'06: 'Quotes'
3.'05: Never Again
4.'01: Have You Seen It in the Snow?
5.'92: Weird Diseases
6.'88: Ethan Frome
7.'85: Why I Am Not a Teenager8.'81: How to Play the Synthesizer
9.'02: Be True to Your Bar
10.'93: Me and Fred and Dave and Ted
11.'86: How I Failed Ethics
12.'74: No
13.'12: You Can Never Go Back to New York -
Please Stop Dancing - EP
2013-01
1.Please Stop Dancing2.The Nun's Litany(Alternate Vocal Version) -
California Girls
2013-01
1.California Girls -
Love At The Bottom Of The Sea
2012-03
1.God Wants Us to Wait
2.Andrew in Drag
3.Your Girlfriend's Face
4.Born For Love
5.I'd Go Anywhere with Hugh
6.Infatuation (With Your Gyration)
7.The Only Boy in Town
8.The Machine in Your Hand9.Goin' Back to the Country
10.I've Run Away to Join the Fairies
11.The Horrible Party
12.My Husband's Pied-a-Terre
13.I Don't Like Your Tone
14.Quick!
15.All She Cares About Is Mariachi -
Realism
2010-12
1.You Must Be Out Of Your Mind
2.Interlude
3.We Are Having A Hootenanny
4.I Don't Know What To Say
5.The Dolls' Tea Party
6.Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree
7.Walk A Lonely Road8.Always Already Gone
9.Seduced And Abandoned
10.Better Things
11.Painted Flower
12.The Dada Polka
13.From A Sinking Boat -
Distortion
2008
1.Three-Way (Provided)
2.California Girls
3.Old Fools
4.Xavier Says
5.Mr. Mistletoe
6.Please Stop Dancing
7.Drive On, Driver8.Too Drunk To Dream
9.Till The Bitter End
10.I'll Dream Alone
11.The Nun's Litany
12.Zombie Boy
13.Courtesans -
Miscellaneous 1
1.Technical (You're So)
2.Sunset City
3.I Have The Moon
4.The Book of Love
5.Seduced & Abandoned
6.Come Back From San Francisco
7.The Saddest Story Ever Told
8.Alien Being
9.If There's Such A Thing As Love
10.I'm Tongue-Tied
11.I Looked All Over Town
12.I Was Born
13.In An Operetta
14.Infinitely Late At Night
15.Irma
16.Is This What They Used To Call Love?
17.I Don't Want to Get Over You
18.A Pretty Girl Is Like ...
19.I Die
20.All My Little Words
21.Crazy for You But( Not That Crazy)
22.I Think I Need a New Heart
23.A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off
24.Absolutely Cuckoo
25.I Don't Believe In The Sun
26.Boa Constrictor
27.How Fucking Romantic
28.I Thought You Were My Boyfriend (Single Edit)
29.I Don't Believe You
30.I Wish I Had an Evil Twin
31.I Thought You Were My Boyfriend
32.I Can't Touch You Anymore
33.All the Umbrellas in London
34.Born on a Train
35.Fear Of Trains
36.Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
37.Asleep And Dreaming
38.I Shatter
39.All You Ever Do Is Walk Away
40.100,000 Fireflies
41.In My Car
42.In My Secret Place
43.Desert Island
44.Deep Sea Diving Suit
45.Falling In Love With The Wolfboy
46.Dancing In Your Eyes
47.Abigail, Belle Of Kilronan
48.Famous49.Acoustic Guitar
50.I'm Sorry I Love You
51.Grand Canyon
52.Busby Berkeley Dreams
53.How to Say Goodbye
54.If You Don't Cry
55.Bitter Tears
56.Don't Look Away
57.Either You Don't Love Me or I Don't Love You
58.Candy
59.Epitaph for My Heart
60.For We Are The King Of The Boudoir
61.Blue You
62.Crowd Of Drifters
63.I Don't Really Love You Anymore
64.Sweet-Lovin' Man
65.I'll Dream Alone
66.Heather Heather
67.Dreams Anymore
68.All I Want To Know
69.The Way You Say Good-Night
70.Love Goes Home to Paris in the Spring
71.Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits
72.Reno Dakota
73.The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side
74.The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be
75.Parades Go By
76.My Sentimental Melody
77.The One You Really Love
78.Papa Was a Rodeo
79.When My Boy Walks Down the Street
80.Smoke Signals
81.Railroad Boy
82.Jeremy
83.Underwear
84.The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure
85.Meaningless
86.You And Me And The Moon
87.Queen Of The Savages
88.Old Orchard Beach
89.Two Characters In Search Of A Country Song
90.With Whom To Dance?
91.Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin
92.The Night You Can't Remember
93.Washington, D.C.
94.Long Vermont Roads
95.Love Is Lighter Than Air
96.Long-Forgotten Fairytale -
Miscellaneous
1.Roses
2.Kiss Me Like You Mean It
3.Promises Of Eternity
4.World Love
5.The Village in The Morning
6.The Sun Goes Down And The World Goes Dancing
7.Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old
8.Strange Powers
9.The Trouble I've Been Looking For
10.Sad Little Moon
11.Sugar World
12.Torn Green Velvet Eyes
13.Take Ecstasy With Me
14.The Flowers She Sent And The Flowers She Said She Sent
15.Xylophone
16.Nothing Matters When We're Dancing
17.Living In An Abandoned Firehouse With You
18.Suddenly There Is A Tidal Wave
19.Lovers From The Moon
20.Summer Lies
21.Kings
22.Tar-Heel Boy
23.Tokyo A-Go-Go
24.Josephine
25.Strange Eyes
26.My Only Friend
27.The Desperate Things You Made Me Do
28.Xylophone Track
29.Punk Love
30.No One Will Ever Love You
31.Love Is Like Jazz
32.You're My Only Home
33.The Dreaming Moon
34.Save a Secret for the Moon35.When the Open Road Is Closing In
36.Very Funny
37.Two Kinds Of People
38.Love In The Shadows
39.Smoke and Mirrors
40.Zebra
41.When You're Old And Lonely
42.Lonely Highway
43.It's a Crime
44.It's Only Time
45.Young And Insane
46.Too Drunk To Dream
47.Plant White Roses
48.Stray With Me
49.Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget
50.The Desperate Things You Make Me Do
51.he Way You Say Good-Night
52.The Things We Did and Didn't Do
53.Experimental Music Love (Provided)
54.Let's Pretened We're Bunny Rabbits
55.The Things We Did
56.Promise of Eternity
57.Long-Forgotton Fairytale
58.Epitath for My Heart
59.For We Are the Kings of the Boudoir
60.I Die: You Die
61.When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There
62.When You Were My Baby
63.Heroes
64.Rats in the Garbage of the Western World
65.Beach-a-Boop-Boop
66.Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
67.'71: I Think I'll Make Another World
68.'68: A Cat Called Dionysus
【Correction of errors in the album information】