New Magnetic Fields Album, With Synths. Synths!

“After putting out their ‘synth-free trilogy,’ The Magnetic Fields are returning to their signature mix of synth and acoustic sounds. Merritt notes about the new album that ‘instead of using a synthesizer as a melodic instrument, much of the time I used it as a compositional destructive mechanism, something eating away at the apparent order of my perfectionist arrangements. I was very happy to be using synthesizers in ways that I had not done before. Most of the synthesizers on the record didn’t exist when we were last using synthesizers.’ The songs — none over three minutes long — were recorded with Merritt’s usual cast of collaborators: Claudia Gonson, Sam Davol, John Woo, Shirley Simms, Johny Blood and Daniel Handler.”
 — Oh, man, now I’ve got to stay alive until March, when The Magnetic Fields release Love at the Bottom of the Sea

, their new album.