Staff Reviews

Stephin Merritt - Obscurities

Review by Neil Ashman

For completists Obscurities is a must. For Magnetic Fields fans it's a worthwhile starting point for Stephin Merritt's other projects.»

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closecritically acclaimed songwriter and mastermind behind the magnetic fields, stephin merritt releases 'obscurities' via domino. 'obscurities' is a collection of merritts hard-to-find recordings dating back to his time on merge records (1994-99) and prior. the los angeles times hails merritt as cone of indie-rocks most acclaimed figures while pitchfork calls him smart, thorough, and unerringly precise. 'obscurities' features 14 tracks in all, including five previously unreleased songs, all recorded prior to the magnetic fields seminal album '69 love songs'. three of the unreleased tracks hail from the song from 'venus', the unfinished science fiction musical written by merritt and daniel handler, akalemon ny snickett. also included on the record are five songs culled from various merge-era 7 vinyl singles by the magnetic fields, along with one from merritt's guest vocalist-laden side project the 6ths, one from an audio book, one from the 'oh, merge' compilation cd, and a track from a rare k records cassette-only release.
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