Realism by The Magnetic Fields

Realism, the Magnetic Fields' ninth studio album, came out on Nonesuch on January 26, 2010, and Stephin Merritt called it his folk album. It's the mirror image of Distortion, the noise-pop blast from two years earlier: Merritt thought of the two as a matched pair and toyed with calling them True and False, but couldn't settle which name belonged to which. It also closes his no-synth trilogy, begun with i in 2004.

So the amps go quiet and the drum kit stays in its case. The arrangements are acoustic, prim and parlour-sized, with Merritt pointing to Joshua Rifkin, who arranged the Judy Collins albums In My Life and Wildflowers, as a guiding light, and there's a woozy, psychedelic tilt to it all, Merritt's deadpan keeping every sentiment at arm's length. Only "The Dada Polka" lets an electric guitar through the door. "You Must Be Out Of Your Mind" is the one listeners held on to, and Love at the Bottom of the Sea came next.

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