The Magnetic Fields
“DISTORTION”
RATING: 3 EXCLAMATION POINTS
Well, you can’t say you weren’t warned. The Magnetic Fields’ new album “Distortion” is totally filled with, well, distortion.
The fuzzy electric guitar effect hangs from everywhere on the album, creating a hazy, echoing, pulsing backdrop for all of Stephin Merritt’s songs, making them seem rockier and more aggressive than usual.
The constant buzzing gives the upbeat “California Girls” the proper weight to deliver the twisted punch line, “I hate California Girls.” It drags “Old Fools” toward dreariness, even as the narrator tries to talk himself out of becoming one of those “old fools who believe that they can dance and sing and fall in love,” despite what his heart is feeling. And it offers enough noise and mess to keep the airy, ’80s-inspired pop melody of “Please Stop Dancing” from floating away.
The woozy, weaving “Too Drunk to Dream” — with its string of drunk/sad rhymes “too fried to cry,” “too high to sigh,” “I gotta drink wine not to pine for you” — is the most successful song on “Distortion.” There’s no conflict, only off-kilter pop roughed up by the ever-present guitar roar.
In the end, “Distortion,” with its quest for uniformity and shroud of anger, only ends up showcasing Magnetic Fields’ cleverness and pop sensibilities all the more.
Various artists
“JUNO” SOUNDTRACK
RATING: 3 EXCLAMATION POINTS
Soundtrack opener “All I Want Is You,” a silly love song by Barry Louis Polisar, who is known for writing children’s books, poems and songs, is an apt overture and a sly setup for what follows: a journey that bounces and sways from classic rock to oddball indie-folk. The star of the music is Kimya Dawson, who appears here as a solo artist and as half of the avant-folk duo the Moldy Peaches. Dawson’s little-girl voice and her whimsical, play-school rhythms and melodies often masquerade the pathos and pain in some of her lyrics. “Juno” is bound to draw comparisons to the beloved “Garden State” soundtrack, but there’s a difference. “Garden State” stands alone as a collection of worthy and well-organized songs; “Juno” is more attached to the movie and its love story. If you haven’t seen the film, you may not empathize with the homemade sounds and whimsical sentiments in its soundtrack. [TIMOTHY FINN, MCT]
CD RACK
ALSO IN STORES THIS WEEK
* The Spice Girls, “Greatest Hits” (right)
* Ringo Starr, “Liverpool 8”
* Raheem Devaughn, “Love Behind the Melody”
* Trisha Yearwood, “Love Songs”
* The Eels, “Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006, Vol. 1”
* Jon Foreman, “Fall and Winter”
* Roomful of Blues, “Raisin’ a Ruckus”
