The Magnetic Fields’ new album Quickies – so named because its 28 songs are all less than 155 seconds long – will be released by Nonesuch in May.
Watch a video for new single “(I Want to Join A) Biker Gang” below:
The Magnetic Fields’ mainman Stephin Merritt explains the concept of Quickies thus: “I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long.
“Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row.”
Quickies is released digitally on May 15 and as a CD or 5×7″ box set on May 30.
“(I Want to Join A) Biker Gang” also features on the free CD that comes with the new issue of Uncut. The magazine itself contains a review of Quickies along with more Merritt chat, and you can order your copy right here.