The Magnetic Fields -Realism

Tue 20th Apr, 2010 in Music Reviews

The art-rock world can do no better or worse than Stephen Merritt for its poster boy. Simultaneously all that is good and bad with the genre he helped create, for the past 22 years Merritt has created music with a sense of self-awareness you wish some of his contemporaries had.

Realism is the end of the Magnetic Fields’ “no-synths” trilogy. In contrast to the feedback-riddled Distortion, it now takes a huge turn towards folk rock and more “real” instrumentation (Merritt’s words, not mine).

It’s timely, considering that between triple j Hottest One Hundred number Ones and Zooey Deschanel, the folk-rock genre has just about been murdered to within a life of itself. Merritt takes the time to exercise his both his skill as a songwriter and to point out the magnificent flaws with the genre as a whole.

What makes Realism great is that Merritt continues to effortlessly make beautiful pop music; the type of beautiful pop music I’m sure Rivers Cuomo wishes he was making. From the most convoluted songs, such as the archetypical ho-down We Are Having a Hootenanny Now to his acoustic baritone exalt Walk A Lonely Road, he enchants and embraces us with his music. Always Already Gone is a moment of particular brilliance; the melancholic melody is frank, heart wrenching and undeniably powerful.

But in equal measures to the beauty of Merritt’s work is the realisation (pun intended) of just how far his experiment has gone. That is, it frequently ventures from beauty to kitsch to parody. The novelty of childish nostalgia and ukuleles and xylophone instrumentation fades quickly. I was left wondering whether there is a punchline, a turn of wit or a footnote you missed before hitting lyrics about playing mah-jong.

But then I remembered that no good music should come with a guidebook. And if it does, it probably isn’t good. So Merritt, in essence, failed at his aim: his concept fell flat on his face by default.

But he succeeds in another facet, the one facet he’s been able to do beautifully from day one: write a beautiful piece of music. And that alone is what raises Realism beyond the realm of your usual indie-kid-ready boring folk-pop.