50 Song Memoir

50 Song Memoir
50 Song Memoir album cover
Studio album by The Magnetic Fields
Released March 3, 2017 (2017-03-03)
Genre Indie pop
Length 2:30:15
Label Nonesuch
Producer Stephin Merritt
Thomas Bartlett
Charles Newman
The Magnetic Fields chronology
Love at the Bottom of the Sea
(2012)
50 Song Memoir
(2017)

50 Song Memoir is the eleventh studio album by the American indie pop band The Magnetic Fields, released on March 3, 2017. 50 Song Memoir is an autobiographical concept album that chronicles the first 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merritt's life, with one song for each year that he has lived.[1]

Recording

Stephin Merritt began recording on his 50th birthday on February 9, 2015. The album was produced by Merritt with additional production by Thomas Bartlett and Charles Newman. Merritt sings on all fifty tracks and plays more than one hundred instruments throughout.

Release

50 Song Memoir is available in five-LP and five-CD editions that include an interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Stephin Merritt, and as a bound book.

Track listing

Disc one
No. Title Length
1. "'66 Wonder Where I’m From"   2:44
2. "’67 Come Back as a Cockroach"   2:34
3. "’68 A Cat Called Dionysus"   2:46
4. "’69 Judy Garland"   3:17
5. "’70 They’re Killing Children Over There"   2:36
6. "’71 I Think I’ll Make Another World"   2:57
7. "’72 Eye Contact"   2:55
8. "’73 It Could Have Been Paradise"   3:07
9. "'74 No"   2:57
10. "’75 My Mama Ain’t"   3:01
Total length:
28:54
Disc two
No. Title Length
11. "’76 Hustle 76"   3:16
12. "’77 Life Ain’t All Bad"   4:16
13. "’78 The Blizzard of ’78"   3:15
14. "’79 Rock’n’Roll Will Ruin Your Life"   2:58
15. "’80 London by Jetpack"   2:58
16. "’81 How to Play the Synthesizer"   3:06
17. "’82 Happy Beeping"   3:10
18. "’83 Foxx and I"   2:43
19. "’84 Danceteria!"   3:09
20. "’85 Why I Am Not a Teenager"   3:07
Total length:
31:58
Disc three
No. Title Length
21. "’86 How I Failed Ethics"   2:58
22. "’87 At the Pyramid"   3:10
23. "’88 Ethan Frome"   2:24
24. "’89 The 1989 Musical Marching Zoo"   3:06
25. "’90 Dreaming in Tetris"   3:21
26. "’91 The Day I Finally…"   2:20
27. "’92 Weird Diseases"   3:10
28. "’93 Me and Fred and Dave and Ted"   3:08
29. "’94 Haven’t Got a Penny"   2:53
30. "’95 A Serious Mistake"   3:13
Total length:
29:43
Disc four
No. Title Length
31. "’96 I’m Sad!"   2:12
32. "’97 Eurodisco Trio"   3:15
33. "’98 Lovers’ Lies"   3:06
34. "’99 Fathers in the Clouds"   2:52
35. "’00 Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers"   3:05
36. "’01 Have You Seen It in the Snow?"   2:51
37. "’02 Be True to Your Bar"   3:34
38. "’03 The Ex and I"   2:59
39. "’04 Cold-Blooded Man"   3:06
40. "’05 Never Again"   3:19
Total length:
30:19
Disc five
No. Title Length
41. "’06 “Quotes”"   2:17
42. "’07 In the Snow White Cottages"   2:52
43. "’08 Surfin’"   2:47
44. "’09 Till You Come Back to Me"   2:29
45. "’10 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"   3:03
46. "’11 Stupid Tears"   2:45
47. "’12 You Can Never Go Back to New York"   3:12
48. "’13 Big Enough for Both of Us"   3:04
49. "’14 I Wish I Had Pictures"   3:07
50. "’15 Somebody’s Fetish"   3:45
Total length:
29:21

Tour

The fully staged live shows in support of 50 Song Memoir are directed by José Zayas.[2] The Magnetic Fields have been expanded to include an additional three musicians for the tour, with each of the seven playing seven different instruments. On the tour the band play the entirety of 50 Song Memoir in two halves across two nights at each venue.[3]

References

  1. "The Magnetic Fields 50 Song Memoir". Nonesuch. 17 November 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  2. "Magnetic Fields Roll Out 2017 US Tour Schedule for 50 Song Memoir". The House of Tomorrow. 18 October 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  3. Yoo, Noah (20 October 2016). "The Magnetic Fields Announce Tour". Pitchfork. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
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