The Magnetic Fields are a band led by New York City singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt. Albums released by Merritt under the name "Magnetic Fields" usually consist of synth-pop music in a 1980s style underlying clever lyrics, often about love, that are by turns ironic, bitter, and humorous. While The Wayward Bus and Distant Plastic Trees (now available together as a compilation) are sung by Susan Anway, all subsequent albums are principally sung by Merritt himself.
The band began as Merritt's studio project, with him playing all instruments. With the help of friend Claudia Gonson, who had played in Merritt's band The Zinnias during high school, a live band was assembled in Boston, where Merritt and Gonson lived, to play Merritt's compositions. The band's first live performance was at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1991 where they played to a sparse audience that was expecting to see Galaxie 500 spin-off Magnetophone.
One of the group's most significant albums to date is its 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs. It showcased Merritt's songwriting abilities and the group's musicianship, demonstrated by the use of such unorthodox instruments as ukulele, banjo, accordion, cello, mandolin, flute, xylophone, and Marxophone, in addition to their usual setting of synthesizers, guitars, and effects. The album features vocalists Shirley Simms, Dudley Klute, L.D. Beghtol and Gonson, each of whom sings lead on six songs as well as various backing vocals, plus Daniel Handler (A.K.A. Lemony Snicket) on accordion, and longtime collaborator Christopher Ewen (of Future Bible Heroes) as guest arranger/synthesist. Violinist Ida Pearle makes a brief cameo on "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side."
Their 2004 album i continues Merritt's love of themed albums, with each of the 14 songs beginning with the letter (or, in the case of half the songs' titles, the pronoun) "I". The liner notes claim the album was made without synthesizers.
The band announced it is in the studio recording and that the new album, entitled Distortion, was to be released through Nonesuch on January 15, 2008. The album's release will be followed by a limited U.S. tour starting in February, though more dates could still be announced.
