seduced and abandoned

There are a few bands whose music I'll buy on trust.

The Magnetic Fields is one such entity. Unlike most bands, they don't evolve the style, its a kind of hard slam of the dials into whichever genre.

Take 69 Love Songs. Literally, sixty nine tracks of poppy-styled songs, with a level of houseoftomorrow Stephin Merritt's clever lyric writing and story telling.

Then Distortion. Every track blasted with extra effects pedals and general fuzz as an experiment into the form.

And now, the new one.

Realism.

A kind of counterpoint to the last one and a certain folksy crafting to the songs, which have identifiable and unscrambled instruments. Nothing that needs to be connected to anything else. Unplugged acoustic. Flugelhorn, tuba, cello, piano, tablas, cajon, leaves, accordion, violin, banjo, cuatro, sitar.

I've heard it said that its supposed to be a kind of second part of the previous album. Distortion and Realism. The album covers do match.

One of the tracks is called Seduced and Abandoned. Maybe it's their next coupling?

Anyway, worth the long wait for this second half of what could have been a double album.

Meantime, some banjo distortion from California.