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“Distortion”, Magnetic Fields’ second release, features the brilliant melodies and wry lyrics that composer and band leader Stephin Merritt has long been praised for, but, as the album title suggests, he serves them up with a twist.

As album producer, Merritt takes a completely novel approach to his deployment of feedback, going well beyond mere fuzzed-out guitar to incorporate cello, piano and accordion into his mad-scientist mix. The resulting is a gorgeous drone that reverberates over the length of 13 tunes – from the exuberantly rocking opener, “Three Way,” to the soused, sing-along lament, “Too Drunk To Dream,” to the bittersweet closer, “Courtesans.” It’s like hearing a great three-minute pop classic from someone else’s car radio in the middle of a traffic jam: melodic bliss surfacing above the din.

Merritt’s doleful baritone is employed to great effect on the brooding, lonely-guy balladry of “Mr. Mistletoe” and the horror movie meets-romantic comedy of “Zombie Boy.” But he swaps lead vocal chores throughout “Distortion” with Shirley Simms, a singer who longtime fans will recognise from her performances on the Magnetic Fields’ career-making 1999 three-disc set, ‘69 Love Songs’.

Merritt calls Simms’ voice “as pop as pop gets” and gives her some of the cleverest numbers, including “California Girls,” a Beach Boys-style anti-anthem about murderous envy, and “The Nun’s Litany,” a chastely rendered list of extremely naughty fantasies.

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