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Added Noise Wakes Up Stephin Merritt's Muse

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By CURTIS ROSS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 17, 2008

Chief Magnetic Field Stephin Merritt wasn't kidding when he named this album "Distortion." The first seconds of the album could be a 1985 Jesus and Mary Chain outtake and the rest sounds as if the JAMC's "Psychocandy" album might be spinning idly in the background.

This is both shocking (Merritt is known for eschewing any "rock" elements) and perfectly logical (how many albums of sparkling clean pop can one make in a career?).

For all the noise, though, this hardly is a rock album. "Mr. Misteltoe" moves at a pace better suited to Sondheim than the Stones. In fact, it's pretty easy to imagine most of these tunes existing in Merritt's usual synth-pop arrangements.

Still, the change seems to have done Merritt some good, as "Distortion" is miles ahead of the Fields' last release, 2004's tiresome "I."

"Three-Way" begins the album with a goofy surf-rock riff accompanied by hilariously enthusiastic shouts of the title.

"California Girls" isn't the Brian Wilson song - singer Claudia Gonson doesn't wish they all could be, she hates them. Putting down celebrity snoots is a tad obvious for the Fields, but the song's gleeful nastiness is hard to resist.

The mood drops rapidly into familiar Merritt territory - doomed romance and self-pity, delivered with maximum verve and cleverness. "It's you, you heartless bastard, you're my one and only," Merritt sings in a droopy baritone that would do Eeyore proud.

By the end of the disc, a nun ponders swapping her habit for a corset, Merritt takes a zombie for a lover and prostitutes are the only winners in love.

Download this: "Too Drunk to Dream"

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