2017 House Programs The Magnetic Fields // 50 Songs | Page 4

It ’ s no surprise that a mind as wildly over-gifted with talent as Merritt ’ s hasn ’ t been solely confined to one form of expression .
A biography would seem a little redundant in the face of a two-part concert event dedicated to chronicling every year of Stephin Merritt ’ s life .
Yet while the forces and figures that have shaped Merritt might be the ostensible subject of this remarkable 50 Song Memoir , it ’ s the vehicle employed to take us on this half-century roadtrip — the ‘ 50 song ’ bit — that proves just as essential to understanding the person in the driver ’ s seat .
It ’ s estimated that Merritt has recorded more than 350 songs in a career spanning four decades , and to attempt to distinguish the person without recourse to this music is a misstep . Until the creation of 50 Song Memoir to mark 50 years on the planet , however , Merritt ’ s music had long veered in any direction but the autobiographical . What can we divine of this enigmatic songsmith from a vast catalogue of music that appears anything but the revelation of a private life , then ?
The first thing of note is how carefully Merritt ’ s musical world is considered in relation to other aspects of identity . Though immersed in music from a young age , the person born Stephen Merritt at one point began occasionally employing the spelling ‘ Stephin ’ to sort junk mail from the rest — it ’ s telling that this playfully disposable moniker was the same one Merritt selected to wear when facing the public as a musician . If Merritt ’ s songwriting is intimate , up close and personal — and how can a magnum opus such as 69 Love Songs be anything but that — it ’ s still the creation of a Stephin one step removed from a Stephen .
Then there ’ s the proliferation of alternate projects . Merritt is best known as the founder of The Magnetic Fields , and since 1991 has led a core lineup and various contributors in the recording of 11 albums . The same period has seen Merritt helm a grab-bag of other bands , however , from the gothbubblegum outfit The Gothic Archies to electronicaheavy Future Bible Heroes . Merritt performs live-only gigs as
one-third of The Three Terrors , and has released four solo albums . To call any of these ‘ side projects ’ would be to miss the point . Each offers Merritt the opportunity to do something the others don ’ t , but to put too much priority on one is to demean the significance of the others .
It ’ s no surprise that a mind as wildly over-gifted with talent as this hasn ’ t been solely confined to one form of expression , either , but even Merritt ’ s non-musical output feels of a piece with the more melodic compositions . Merritt ’ s 101 Two-Letter Words , poems riffing on the shortest acceptable Scrabble words , is a linguistic juggling act perfectly in keeping with the typically sportive lyric-writing . Long after the formation of The Magnetic Fields Merritt could be found on the pages of Time Out New York , writing music criticism . When Merritt contributed essays for a reference book on words writers find particularly fascinating , the choices — from ‘ xylophone ’ to ‘ suburb ’— have the same odd mixture of gravity and weightlessness that powers Merritt ’ s profound yet playful songwriting .
50 Song Memoir is no confessional — Merritt is too in control for that — but neither is it pure artifice . It ’ s something else , and something only Merritt could have come up with . Just listen .
— JOHN BAILEY
PHOTO | Arnulfo Maldonado