The Magnetic Fields’ Realism will be released by Nonesuch Records on January 26, 2010. The band’s ninth album is the follow-up to 2008’s Distortion, which was hailed by Rolling Stone as “one of the best records of [their] career.” Whereas Distortion was an album of power-pop songs with heavily distorted guitars, in homage to the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy, Realism finds front man and songwriter Stephin Merritt drawing inspiration from late 1960s / early 70s orchestral and psychedelic folk. Realism’s all-acoustic recording line up featured no electronic instruments, and used nontraditional percussion instruments, ranging from tabla to tree leaves. The Magnetic Fields will tour the US in support of the album beginning February 4. The complete list of dates can be found below and at nonesuch.com/on-tour.

As the album title implies, Realism finds Merritt examining what “real” really means in recorded music, exploring the sincerity (or lack thereof) of folk lyrics and their delivery, along with non-electronic instrumentation, “realistic” production values, and even a plain brown paper sack background used for the album’s artwork.

In addition to the usual ensemble of Merritt on ukulele, Claudia Gonson (keyboard, vocals), John Woo (guitar), and Sam Davol (cello), and Shirley Simms (vocals, autoharp), The Magnetic Fields are joined by friends and longtime collaborators Daniel Handler, a.k.a Lemony Snicket (accordion), as well as Johnny Blood (tuba) and Ida Pearle (violin).

There will be a limited edition, hand-silkscreened poster signed by Stephin Merritt available with the Realism CD or LP exclusively at the Nonesuch Store, to the first 250 customers. The LP also includes the album on CD, and as always, CDs and LPs ordered from the Nonesuch Store include audiophile-quality (320 kbps) MP3s at no additional cost, available for download on release day. It's all available for pre-order now.

In 1999, The Magnetic Fields’ three-CD collection, 69 Love Songs, established Stephin Merritt as one of this generation’s most talented songwriters. That breakthrough was followed by two Nonesuch releases, i in 2004, and Distortion in 2008. Between Magnetic Fields releases, Merritt has released side projects and albums with his various other bands, Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies, and the 6ths, as well as soundtracks to the films Eban and Charley and Pieces of April (Nonesuch). In 2006, Nonesuch also released a collection of songs Merritt wrote under the name The Gothic Archies, to accompany the Lemony Snicket books, The Tragic Treasury: Songs from a Series of Unfortunate Events. In 2009, Merritt scored the Off-Broadway adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS 2010 TOUR DATES