Realism

Super twee upbeat folk-tinged indie rock. Lots of sticky-sweet jangly stuff that would make a perfect soundtrack to dreams about tea parties with fairies and gnomes and pastel colors. Nothing offensive or edgy here. The Magnetic Fields are kind of like Belle and Sebastian, the Sixths, Voxtrot, etc. but a bit more…fluffy. They have made a lot of really consistent releases, so they’re kind of a big deal. If you are into indie rock at all then you will love this album. If you’re not, then this will be your newest guilty pleasure. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.

FCC: Clean! (Are you kidding me? Their mothers would kill them…)
TRY: 7,1,4,2,11

*1. Lush instrumentation, jangly guitars, mandolin and this cute little triangle “ting.” Dreamy male vocals. A good snag.
*2. Nice harp line intro. Sweet, airy female vocals. Pianos and strings galore.
3. Painfully cheerful upbeat acoustic ditty with banjos and fiddles. Fairly stupid lyrics. This song is hellaciously happy-go-lucky…don’t say I didn’t warn you.
*4. Fairly low-fi. Lots of percussion…nice male vocals although it’s pretty Debbie Downer, even for a slow jam. There’s an awesome cello line in it for all you string fans though.
5. HAHAHA! This song is ACTUALLY ABOUT A TEA PARTY! It sounds just like it too! Kind of Nutcrackerish…lots of tinkering percussion, marching band horns, etc. I think I heard a few tin soldiers in there somewhere…A very sweet song, though.
6. Strummy acoustic guitar, punctuating horn parts. Brian-Wilson-imitation orchestration. Steady male vocals. Achtung! Several of the lines are in German.
*7. Super-smooth dreamy landscape. Male and female vocals perfectly interwoven with cellos and gentle drumming. Excellent.
8. Slow, crisp ballad with lots of banjos and a very surreal atmosphere.
9. Grand, majestic sound. Like some sort of slow Viennese Ball dance. Harpsichord and everything.
10. Horns, strummy mandolins, slow deliberate male vocals. Excellent harmony parts with tons of cheery bird sound effects.
*11. Xylophone and harpsichord with very vulnerable, open vocals. Occasional guitar.
12. Upbeat “Let’s Go Dance!!!” song. Lots going on here—a sort of wall-of-sound approach.
13. Long instrumental leads into occasional earnest singing. Accordions and horns slowly bring the album to the end.