Watch: Unboxing the Magnetic Fields' "50 Song Memoir"

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The Magnetic Fields' 50 Song Memoir, which chronicles the fifty years of songwriter Stephin Merritt's life with one song per year, is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including a 100-page book with an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone book with a full-album download card. Now you can take a quick look inside the package in a new "unboxing" video here.

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The Magnetic Fields' 50 Song Memoir, which chronicles the fifty years of songwriter Stephin Merritt's life with one song per year, is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including a 100-page book with an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone book with a full-album download card. Now you can take a quick look inside the package in a new "unboxing" video below.

Stephin Merritt sings vocals on all fifty songs in the set and plays more than one hundred instruments, from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics are nonfiction—a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis). It's "quite an achievement," says NPR. The Wall Street Journal calls it "a highly entertaining summary of pop culture of the past half-century ... 50 Song Memoir is a treat."

To pick up a copy of 50 Song Memoir, head to iTunes, Amazon, or the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include a download of the complete fifty-song set at checkout.

The 50 Song Memoir US tour heads to Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend for two nights at the Big Ears Festival, followed by two nights each—twenty-five songs each night—in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, and Seattle. Tickets for the tour of the UK and Ireland are on sale now as well. For details and tickets, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

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The Magnetic Fields: Unboxing "50 Song Memoir" [video]
  • Thursday, March 23, 2017
    Watch: Unboxing the Magnetic Fields' "50 Song Memoir"

    The Magnetic Fields' 50 Song Memoir, which chronicles the fifty years of songwriter Stephin Merritt's life with one song per year, is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including a 100-page book with an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone book with a full-album download card. Now you can take a quick look inside the package in a new "unboxing" video below.

    Stephin Merritt sings vocals on all fifty songs in the set and plays more than one hundred instruments, from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics are nonfiction—a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis). It's "quite an achievement," says NPR. The Wall Street Journal calls it "a highly entertaining summary of pop culture of the past half-century ... 50 Song Memoir is a treat."

    To pick up a copy of 50 Song Memoir, head to iTunes, Amazon, or the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include a download of the complete fifty-song set at checkout.

    The 50 Song Memoir US tour heads to Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend for two nights at the Big Ears Festival, followed by two nights each—twenty-five songs each night—in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, and Seattle. Tickets for the tour of the UK and Ireland are on sale now as well. For details and tickets, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

    Journal Articles:Artist NewsVideo

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