The Magnetic Fields

True to its title, Distortion — the latest album from Stephen Merritt’s long-running prickly pop project The Magnetic Fields — is full of feedback and reverb. Though one might fear that such sonic intrusion would disrupt these carefully crafted tunes, it’s not the case. In fact Distortion is as pretty, melodic, and fully formed as anything Merritt has done, as well as immediately accessible from top to bottom. From the surf rock near-instrumental “Three-Way” to “California Girls” — which simultaneously pays homage to and skewers the Beach Boys — to “The Nun’s Litany,” this slightly dissonant dreamscape of an album is charming, irreverent, and catchy throughout. The secret weapon is vocalist Shirley Simms, a longtime friend of Merritt’s who lends her Sixties- and Seventies-radio-style vocals to every other track. Despite the songs’ debt to Phil Spector, Merritt’s lyrics are as bitter as ever, thankfully. On “Mr. Mistletoe” he sings, “Oh Mr. Mistletoe hanging above, please go away/I’ve got no one to love/Oh Mr. Mistletoe, wither and die, you useless weed/For no one have I.” Merritt learned long ago that pretty ditties and sour sentiment go together perfectly, and he has never expressed it better than here.