Magnetic Fields, The "Quickies" RSD Magenta (2020)

"Details: Magnetic Fields, The "Quickies" RSD Magenta Transparent (2020, Nonesuch). Limited edition repress - Black Friday Edition. Includes an 8-page booklet and previously unreleased bonus track (A15). New stock, sealed. 

Description: "Merritt explains his thinking behind the Quickies concept: “I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long.

“Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row.”

Quickies features Merritt and other Magnetic Fields band members Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo. They are joined by longtime friends and collaborators Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman.

To date, Stephin Merritt has written and recorded twelve Magnetic Fields albums, including the beloved 69 Love Songs and 2017 critically acclaimed Nonesuch box set, 50 Song Memoir, which chronicled the first fifty years of the songwriter’s life with one song per year. New York magazine called the box set “a celebration of Merritt’s sky-high range as a writer and a player, through the exploration of the circumstances that helped cultivate it … a delightful flip through the untold back pages of one of rock’s most singular voices, and, all in all, the best damned Magnetic Fields album in the last ten years.” Merritt has also composed original music and lyrics for several music theater pieces, including an off-Broadway stage musical of Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline, for which he received an Obie Award. In 2014, Merritt composed songs and background music for the first musical episode of public radio’s This American Life. Stephin Merritt also releases albums under the band names The 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes."

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. Castles Of America
A2. The Biggest Tits In History
A3. The Day The Politicians Died
A4. Castle Down A Dirt Road
A5. Bathroom Quickie
A6. My Stupid Boyfriend
A7. Love Gone Wrong
A8. Favorite Bar
A9. Kill A Man A Week
A10. Kraftwerk In A Blackout
A11. When She Plays The Toy Piano
A12. Death Pact (Let's Make A)
A13. I've Got A Date With Jesus
A14. Come, Life, Shaker Life!
A15. The Witches Fly

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. (I Want To Join A) Biker Gang
B2. Rock 'N' Roll Guy
B3. You've Got A Friend In Beelzebub
B4. Let's Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)
B5. The Best Cup Of Coffee In Tennessee
B6. When The Brat Upstairs Got A Drum Kit
B7. The Price You Pay
B8. The Boy In The Corner
B9. Song Of The Ant
B10. I Wish I Had Fangs And A Tail
B11. Evil Rhythm
B12. She Says Hello
B13. The Little Robot Girl
B14. I Wish I Were A Prostitute Again