When Stephin Merritt was in Chicago last month during the Magnetic Fields' 50 Song Memoir tour stops at Thalia Hall, he visited the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for a public conversation with Pitchfork's Marc Hogan as part of Pitchfork and the museum's In Sight Out arts and culture series. They discussed 50 Song Memoir, the Magnetic Fields' new five-disc album that chronicles the 50 years of Merritt's life with one song per year, which was released earlier this year on Nonesuch. Upon the album's release, Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky wrote that "the story of his life sounds a lot like a Magnetic Fields album, and a very good one at that," concluding that this new collection has made "his catalog 50 songs richer as a result." You can hear the In Sight Out interview here:

Merritt also discussed the new project for a new feature in American Songwriter magazine, which can be read at americansongwriter.com.

50 Song Memoir is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt. To pick up a copy, head to iTunes, Amazon, and the Nonesuch Store, where it is also available as a standalone bound book with a full-album download card.

The Magnetic Fields heads to Spain to perform all 50 songs from the new album at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona on June 2 and 3, and will tour the UK and Ireland in late August. For details and tickets, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.