Magnetic Fields’ third Nonesuch disc, Realism, is the flipside to the industrial pop of Distortion, the quartet’s brilliant 2008 homage to, of all things, the clangorous sound of the Jesus and Mary Chain. While Distortion was recorded quickly and noisily in the stairwells and rooms of the New York City apartment building to which singer-songwriter-bandleader Stephen Merritt was about to bid adieu for California, Realism was cut in the distortion-free environs of a Los Angeles studio, and its sound is as pristine as a plein-air painting. There are no drum kits to be heard, and the fascinatingly varied instrumentation – guitars, accordions, violins, cellos, tablas, banjos, tuba, even a smattering of mellifluous falling leaves – did not need to be plugged in.

And, as with Distortion, the album credits emphasize: No Synths.

With tongue only slightly in cheek, Merritt has taken to declaring Realism his “folk” album. To get the point across, there is an upbeat, sing-along number early in the set called “We Are Having a Hootenany.” Merritt’s inspirations, however, were the orchestrated, mostly British folk of the late sixties/early seventies–which owe as much to sixties psychedelia as to traditional music–and the work of Judy Collins, who stretched the boundaries of “folk” with the chamber-pop arrangements of such albums as In My Life and Wildflowers. read more »