Singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt calls this album “variety folk format”, and while he wouldn’t be completely wrong, he still seems to have missed the fact that “variety” denotes a variation or some kind. In truth, most of Realism’s songs sound far too similar to one another. The influences of British 60s era orchestral folk were a clever idea, but what Merritt et al fail to follow through and turn that experiment into a good album.

Realism contains 13 tracks, most of which are under three minutes long. It’s a truly messy collection of sounds and patterns that barely have the time to develop into anything substantial. Likewise, the five other musicians working with Merritt sound unrehearsed and self-indulgent. Even with a plethora of interesting instrumentation such as banjo, piano, accordion, xylophone and no traditional drumming kit, the results feel haphazard and mismanaged. In particular, the vocal arrangements lacked a certain cohesiveness that seemed to mirror the sloppy musicianship.

To the band’s detriment, Merritt is also the lyricist, and a lazy one at that. Come to think of it, the album would probably benefit from a complete lack of vocals. Peculiar lyrical gems include, “Come and take our personality quiz/ get the low-down on our hoe-down,” and “I want you crawling back to me/ down on your knees, yeah/ like an appendectomy.”

Perhaps the album’s lone saving grace was cellist Sam Devol. If Merrit and his band had paid more attention to his careful phrasing and patterns, and tried to mirror those details in their own parts, this album may have turned out quite beautiful. It’s very unfortunate, and truly disappointing.

Track Listing:

1. You Must Be Out Of Your Mind
2. Interlude
3. We Are Having A Hootenanny
4. I Don’t Know What To Say
5. The Dolls’ Tea Party
6. Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree
7. Walk A Lonely Road
8. Always Already Gone
9. Seduced And Abandoned
10. Better Things
11. Painted Flower
12. The Dada Polka
13. From A Sinking Boat

The Magnetic Fields play Toronto February 8th 2010 (Queen Elizabeth Theatre).