New Music: The Magnetic Fields: "The Nun's Litany" (Live on "Fair Game")
The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt is a man of a million conceits, with distortion the surprisingly invigorating idea unifying his latest album, titled-- OK, unsurprisingly-- Distortion. Probably the funniest and most effective song on the record is "The Nun's Litany", which splashes wavy feedback screeches, reverberating snare hits, and a few cleanly chiming tones against Shirley Simms' sweetly sung vocals about becoming "a topless waitress", "an artist's model", "a dominatrix", and other career options more likely than the convent to land her a man. Merritt performs the song solo on ukulele in this take from his session for PRI's show "Fair Game", and his dour baritone only makes the song more hilarious. "I may not find a cure for cancer," he intones matter-of-factly, "But I'll meet plenty of single guys." While Merritt sounds fine in Jesus and Mary Chain mode, this recording is a reminder that he sounds just as good-- how would the nun put it?-- "au naturel." Ooh la la. The full show is streaming over at the "Fair Game" website.
MP3:> The Magnetic Fields: "The Nun's Litany" (Live on Fair Game)
[original track from Distortion; out now on Nonesuch]