Stephin Merritt's Magnetic Fields have given their first two records and their landmark 69 Love Songs the reissue treatment this past little while, but some new material will soon surface in the new year. A five-CD/five-LP collection titled 50 Song Memoir is set to arrive in March of next year through Nonesuch.
50 Song Memoir is said to chronicle the life of songwriter Merritt with one song per year. Having commenced recording the collection on his 50th birthday (February 9, 2015), Merritt describes the end result as "a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis)."
Merritt reportedly plays more than 100 different instruments on the record and will be taking the release on tour next year with a newly expanded Magnetic Fields septet. At this present time, there are no Canadian dates on the run, but you can find the list of performances here.
50 Song Memoir will arrive on March 3 and is now available to pre-order through iTunes and in the Nonesuch store. The album is available in five-LP and five-CD editions, which include an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone bound book with download card.
Read through the lengthy tracklist to hear five songs from the record in the player below.
50 Song Memoir:
Disc 1:
1. '66 Wonder Where I'm From
2. '67 Come Back as a Cockroach
3. '68 A Cat Called Dionysus
4. '69 Judy Garland
5. '70 They're Killing Children Over There
Disc 2:
1. '71 I Think I'll Make Another World
2. '72 Eye Contact
3. '73 It Could Have Been Paradise
4. '74: No
5. '75 My Mama Ain't
Disc 3:
1. '76 Hustle 76
2. '77 Life Ain't All Bad
3. '78 The Blizzard of '78
4. '79 Rock'n'Roll Will Ruin Your Life
5. '80 London by Jetpack
Disc 4:
1. '81 How to Play the Synthesizer
2. '82 Happy Beeping
3. '83 Foxx and I
4. '84 Danceteria!
5. '85 Why I Am Not a Teenager
Disc 5:
1. '86 How I Failed Ethics
2. '87 At the Pyramid
3. '88 Ethan Frome
4. '89 The 1989 Musical Marching Zoo
5. '90 Dreaming in Tetris
Disc 6:
1. '91 The Day I Finally…
2. '92 Weird Diseases
3. '93 Me and Fred and Dave and Ted
4. '94 Haven't Got a Penny
5. '95 A Serious Mistake
Disc 7:
1. '96 I'm Sad!
2. '97 Eurodisco Trio
3. '98 Lovers' Lies
4. '99 Fathers in the Clouds
5. '00 Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers
Disc 8:
1. '01 Have You Seen It in the Snow?
2. '02 Be True to Your Bar
3. '03 The Ex and I
4. '04 Cold-Blooded Man
5. '05 Never Again
Disc 9:
1. '06 "Quotes"
2. '07 In the Snow White Cottages
3. '08 Surfin'
4. '09 Till You Come Back to Me
5. '10 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Disc 10:
1. '11 Stupid Tears
2. '12 You Can Never Go Back to New York
3. '13 Big Enough for Both of Us
4. '14 I Wish I Had Pictures
5. '15 Somebody's Fetish
50 Song Memoir is said to chronicle the life of songwriter Merritt with one song per year. Having commenced recording the collection on his 50th birthday (February 9, 2015), Merritt describes the end result as "a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis)."
Merritt reportedly plays more than 100 different instruments on the record and will be taking the release on tour next year with a newly expanded Magnetic Fields septet. At this present time, there are no Canadian dates on the run, but you can find the list of performances here.
50 Song Memoir will arrive on March 3 and is now available to pre-order through iTunes and in the Nonesuch store. The album is available in five-LP and five-CD editions, which include an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone bound book with download card.
Read through the lengthy tracklist to hear five songs from the record in the player below.
50 Song Memoir:
Disc 1:
1. '66 Wonder Where I'm From
2. '67 Come Back as a Cockroach
3. '68 A Cat Called Dionysus
4. '69 Judy Garland
5. '70 They're Killing Children Over There
Disc 2:
1. '71 I Think I'll Make Another World
2. '72 Eye Contact
3. '73 It Could Have Been Paradise
4. '74: No
5. '75 My Mama Ain't
Disc 3:
1. '76 Hustle 76
2. '77 Life Ain't All Bad
3. '78 The Blizzard of '78
4. '79 Rock'n'Roll Will Ruin Your Life
5. '80 London by Jetpack
Disc 4:
1. '81 How to Play the Synthesizer
2. '82 Happy Beeping
3. '83 Foxx and I
4. '84 Danceteria!
5. '85 Why I Am Not a Teenager
Disc 5:
1. '86 How I Failed Ethics
2. '87 At the Pyramid
3. '88 Ethan Frome
4. '89 The 1989 Musical Marching Zoo
5. '90 Dreaming in Tetris
Disc 6:
1. '91 The Day I Finally…
2. '92 Weird Diseases
3. '93 Me and Fred and Dave and Ted
4. '94 Haven't Got a Penny
5. '95 A Serious Mistake
Disc 7:
1. '96 I'm Sad!
2. '97 Eurodisco Trio
3. '98 Lovers' Lies
4. '99 Fathers in the Clouds
5. '00 Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers
Disc 8:
1. '01 Have You Seen It in the Snow?
2. '02 Be True to Your Bar
3. '03 The Ex and I
4. '04 Cold-Blooded Man
5. '05 Never Again
Disc 9:
1. '06 "Quotes"
2. '07 In the Snow White Cottages
3. '08 Surfin'
4. '09 Till You Come Back to Me
5. '10 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Disc 10:
1. '11 Stupid Tears
2. '12 You Can Never Go Back to New York
3. '13 Big Enough for Both of Us
4. '14 I Wish I Had Pictures
5. '15 Somebody's Fetish