The new album from Stephin Merritt contains one song for each of the first 50 years of his life. It's an extraordinary project for an artist already known for ambitious feats of conceptual songwriting, most notably his beloved 69 Love Songs album. Despite what the title suggests, the album isn’t a traditional autobiography; Merritt’s own life is abstracted through the context of world events, or social and cultural developments of various eras. Certain personal details are omitted, and instead songs return to themes, loves and memories that form constants in the shifting boundaries of his life. The instrumentals explore a range of genres that served as musical backdrops to each decade of Stephin's life, yet always manage to sound like signature Magnetic Fields material.
50 Song Memoir
The Magnetic Fields