The fantastic ‘Andrew In Drag’ suggested Magnetic Fields had at last reversed a decade-plus sidle toward mediocrity, a gentle decline that dated from career-best three-disc sprawl 69 Love Songs. Actually, the single is by a very great distance the best thing on the eleventh album from Stephin Merritt and his loose collective of vocalists and guest players. Witty, dark and exquisitely catchy, it’s as good as anything Merritt has released under the banner of the Magnetic Fields or any of his myriad side-projects.
Alas, Love At The Bottom Of The Sea is elsewhere packed with slight curios which seem to exist only to remind you what a clever chappie Merritt is. The problem is that where in the past Merritt fused laugh-out-loud songs and heartbreaking melodies, now the actual songwriting takes second place to his self-conscious wordplay. There are exceptions: the weightless ‘Infatuation’, for instance, sounds like Gary Numan fronting Yo La Tengo – which turns out to be a brilliant idea. But there are too many moments like ‘Your Girlfriend’s Face’, a gratuitously snarky attempt to jolt the listener out of their comfort zone. After three guitar based records, Love At The Bottom Of The Sea denotes a return to the synth-pop Merritt dealt in early in his career. Alas, anyone expecting a repeat of the dolorous bliss of Holiday or the charm of The Highway Strip – or even 2006’s underrated Gothic Archies side-project A Tragic Treasury – will likely feel underwhelmed and maybe a bit bereft.