Track Listing

1. Three-Way
2. California Girls
3. Old Fools
4. Xavier Says
5. Mr. Mistletoe
6. Please Stop Dancing
7. "Drive on, Driver"
8. Too Drunk to Dream
9. Till the Bitter End
10. I'll Dream Alone
11. The Nun's Litany
12. Zombie Boy
13. Courtesans

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24366 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Amazon.com
Fans of the Jesus and Mary Chain will surely be thrilled with Distortion, which lives up to its title in the first few seconds of the jovial opener, "Three Way." The entire album is awash in a bed of feedback and noise sharp enough to match bandleader/Svengali Stephen Merritt's notoriously wry lyrical jabs. In its willful obfuscation of simple melodies, Distortion recalls MF's earlier, more electronic, more reverb-soaked output. Of course, Merritt's songs could probably work with any arrangement, cacophonous or otherwise. His lyrics and succinct melodies survive the treatment, and his inner Cole Porter remains intact. "California Girls" features regular collaborator Shirley Simms cheerily plotting a battle-axe attack on some of the more blonde and plastic elements of California society (Simms handles vocal duties on about half the tunes here). "Mr. Mistletoe" is an anti-carol with a forlorn Merritt attaching his romantic betrayal to various holiday symbols. "Too Drunk to Dream" is classic Merritt, with an upbeat but down-on-its-luck refrain: "I gotta get too drunk to dream / Because I only dream of you." Drenched in distortion, MF's now-expected acoustic instruments--cello, piano, accordion--create some remarkable textures. Merritt and crew remain full of songs and surprises, and in finding their ability to make a ruckus, have created an inarguably singular offering. --Jason Pace