The Magnetic Fields are their own worst enemy. Beginning with 1991’s Distant Plastic Trees and ascending through classic albums Holiday and The Charm of the Highway Strip, the quality of the band’s output finally crescendoed to dizzying heights with 1999’s ambitious, unparalleled opus 69 Love Songs.

The monstrous album was so brilliantly exhaustive, and set the bar so impossibly high, that any followup from the band was destined to feel inconsequential by comparison. Songwriter Stephin Merrit sidestepped that problem by making his post-69 works, 2004’s I and 2008’s Distortion, intentionally microscopic. Whether starting all of his song titles with the same letter or dousing his compositions in uncharacteristic amounts of fuzz, Merrit has relied on thematic gimmicks to help neutralize high expectations. Continue reading →