50 Song Memoir

50 Song Memoir

Nonesuch Records releases the Magnetic Fieldsâ€™ 50 Song Memoir on March 3, 2017. The five-CD / five-LP set chronicles the 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merrittâ€™s life with one song per year; it was produced by Stephin Merritt with additional production by Thomas Bartlett and Charles Newman. On tour, the Magnetic Fields perform the 50 Song MemoirÂ over two nights per city, beginning tomorrow and Saturday, November 18 and 19, at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA, and continuing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on December 2 and 3. Further dates begin in spring 2017. 50 Song Memoir is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone bound book with a full-album download card.

Merritt began recording on his 50th birthday: February 9, 2015. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics on 50 Song Memoir are nonfictionâ€”in Merrittâ€™s words, â€œa mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis).â€ As he says in the albumâ€™s liner note interview with his friend, the author Daniel Handler, â€œI am the least autobiographical person you are likely to meet. I will probably not write any more true songs after this than I did before, but itâ€™s been interesting working on it.â€

In addition to his vocals on all 50 songs, Merritt plays more than 100 instruments on 50 Song Memoir, ranging from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. In concert, the music will be played and sung by a newly expanded Magnetic Fields septet in a stage set featuring 50 years of artifacts both musical (vintage computers, reel-to-reel tape decks, newly invented instruments), and decorative (tiki bar, shag carpet, vintage magazines for the perusal of idle musicians). The seven performers each play seven different instruments, either traditional (cello, charango, clavichord) or invented in the last 50 years (Slinky guitar, Swarmatron, synthesizer). The stage extravaganza will be directed by the award-winning Jose Zayas (Love in the Time of Cholera, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter).
Country USA
Brand Nonesuch
Manufacturer Nonesuch
Binding Audio CD
ItemPartNumber 47352573
ReleaseDate 2017-03-10
UnitCount 5
Format Box set
UPCs 075597940909
EANs 0075597940909

Country	USA
Brand	Nonesuch
Manufacturer	Nonesuch
Binding	Audio CD
ItemPartNumber	47352573
ReleaseDate	2017-03-10
UnitCount	5
Format	Box set
UPCs	075597940909
EANs	0075597940909

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