2 days til Distortion

I've been slowly preparing myself for the release of Distortion. The full album is streaming on The Magnetic Fields' Myspace page, but it just doesn't seem right to listen to it yet. Admittedly, this is not how I expected to be feeling on the eve of the release of a new album by the band that has been my favorite for over a decade, but it is what it is. I have cheated a few times and listened to parts of various songs, but never all the way through. I want to experience the whole thing for the first time, as a unit, on my iPod in an appropriate setting.

I took some time yesterday to listen to the Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy, which Stephin Merritt cites as Distortion's most direct influence. The last time I listened to JAMC was probably right around when I discovered The Magnetic Fields, but I think my auditory palate was too immature then to notice the similarities. Suddenly, all those weird sounds in songs like "Torn Green Velvet Eyes" make so much more sense. In fact, I don't think an album like Holiday or Get Lost would have existed before Psychocandy and that is what makes the release of Distortion so significant--it pays homage to the inaugural moment of what has been there all along. Not to mention, if you took away all of the distortion in Psychocandy, you would basically have every Beat Happening album of the 80's.

The Jesus and Mary Chain: Some Candy Talking
The Jesus and Mary Chain: Inside Me