The Magnetic Fields

Realism

[Nonesuch; 2010]

Links: The Magnetic Fields | Nonesuch | Purchase on Insound

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Indie rock veterans The Magnetic Fields will be releasing Realism on January 26 with Nonesuch Records. Songwriter Stephin Merritt has commented that this is his “folk album,” a conscious change of pace for the band, since 2008’s Distortion was largely based in noise rock. Like i and Distortion before it, Realism does not contain synths, thus completing the “no-synth trilogy” in the band’s discography.

That’s enough description for now. Hear the album for yourself on the band’s MySpace page, where you can stream the album in full.

As you may have heard David Byrne has a new project coming out that he has worked on with Fatboy Slim, entitled Here Lies Love. The ambitious concept double album features many female vocalists including Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine), Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Tori Amos and many more. You can download the song “Please Don’t” featuring Santigold below.

MP3: David Byrne & Fatboy Slim – “Please Don’t” [feat. Santigold]

The album is out on February 23rd from Nonesuch Records. It is available in several formats, which are all detailed and available for pre-order here.

They have also made available a slideshow explaining more about the project which you can view here.

There certainly has been no lack of David Byrne in recent years. The former Talking Heads frontman has kept our collective interest piqued with his involvement the music world. For starters, there was that amazing collaborative album in 2008 with Brian Eno, called Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. This year, there was the HIV/AIDS charity album, Dark Was the Night, for which Byrne and Dirty Projectors contributed the song “Knotty Pine.” Byrne performed at Bonnaroo this year and curated a stage, showing off some of his favorite artists, including St. Vincent, Santigold, and Dirty Projectors. He’s been popping up on our radar, here and there, and that’s always a good thing when it comes to David Byrne.

But what about Fatboy Slim? Now there’s an artist we haven’t heard much from in the past several years. Well, the wait is over, and now we can have David Byrne and Fatboy Slim in the same place with their upcoming concept album, Here Lies Love, to be released on February 23, 2010 on Nonesuch Records / Todomundo.

The Nonesuch press release echoes Byrne’s comments in previous interviews: the project revolves around the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her childhood servant, Estrella Cumpas. It features an all-star cast of collaborators, including Santigold (It’s about time we heard a David Byrne/Santigold collab!), Tori Amos, Shara Worden (from My Brightest Diamond), Martha Wainwright, and more. The box set will come with two CDs (22 tracks), one DVD, and a 100-page book about the project itself.

Check out the press release on the Nonesuch website to catch a glimpse of the tracklist, which includes a full list of collaborators.

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