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It's a double-sided hook that clears the murkiness from the remaining five tracks, while simultaneously improving the first half (especially tracks like 'California Girls' and 'Please Stop Dancing') when spun for a second or third time.
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After multiple listens, there are certainly a batch of songs that rise like cream to the top, and while the release doesn't have seriously low points, it's not as solid throughout as the best work from the group (especially towards the end).
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The epitome of a melancholy winter record.
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Every instrument here distorts, giving tearjerkers like 'I’ll Dream Alone' complementary grit.
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Distortion isn't an easy listen, with its strict, difficult palette. But it's an endlessly fascinating and provocative one.
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Despite its painfully obvious flaws, Distortion isn’t bad in the sense that it lacks gratifying melodies or does not possess a certain nostalgic charm.
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This is a terrific album, one fully ready and suited for headphones; an album that should be easily enjoyed by all and that will surely be loved by many.
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It's that time of year when critics are desperate to anoint the first "great" record of the year. Distortion is too tricksy and knowing to be that, but it's a thoroughly entertaining also-ran nonetheless.
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Save the odd occasion where Merritt opts for smirking affect over emotional resonance, it all adds up to an excellent addition to an already distinguished back catalogue.
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The latest, the crustily erotic Distortion, is nearly its ["69 Love Songs"] equal. But way shorter.
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The perfect antidote to a season of false cheer and frozen toes.
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The new record sees him pushing his songbook to extremes in entirely unexpected fashion.
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Distortion is really a triumph of the evening-out.
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MagnetWhether Merritt's return to lo-fi will fly at Lincoln Center remains to be seen, but his melodic mastery is never in question. [Winter 2008, p.108]
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MojoIt's faux-naif orch-pop that crashes and thunders. [Feb 2008, p.108]
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He's made a novelty record that gets deeper with time.
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Most of the songs have plenty to give in these spheres, so for fans this can be viewed as a qualified success, if never quite approaching previous highs.
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Distortion is above cynical reproach--effortlessly modern and definitively 2008, yet flitting with the ghosts of Shields, Madder Rose (ask your 90s alt.indie expert uncle) and The Jesus And Mary Chain.
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The fact is there are just too many smart, well-written songs on this album to get hung up on the messy sound.
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While the Jesus and Mary Chain might have been limited by their musical ability and knowledge, Merritt and company understand the pop principles they’re working with.
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A lovely addition to the noisy canon and a barbed new year tonic.
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Distortion isn't a return to form so much as a return to content.
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Merritt does what he always does. He writes clever songs that are sweet and bitter, comforting and subversive.
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The lightness, even with the same downtrodden lyrics, comes from the upbeat arrangements that find their way through the slosh of feedback--an appropriate sound for lyrics that evoke the same feeling--sloshing through the everyday. Perhaps Merritt realizes that to be comically self-loathing or misanthropic is, perhaps, all a person can ask for.
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Q MagazineThere is plenty to enjoy, although it never comes close to recapturing the eclectic brillance of 1999's career high, "69 Love Songs. [Feb 2008, p.99]
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It rocks, in this case a meaningful, temporary departure. Its unmelded sonic gestalt suits its thematic disquiet. It's Stephin Merritt's second-best album, which is saying a great deal.
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Distortion gets a lot right.
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Ultimately, the album succeeds despite the extra fuss, not because of it.
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The songs themselves are as lush and prickly as anything Merritt's ever made.
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When Distortion goes wrong, however, it dive-bombs.
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Distortion does not reinvent the wheel of alternative rock, but it may have just started it spinning again.
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He may be treading water a little until he really gets into his groove as the 21st century Sondheim, but Distortion at its best is beguiling and quietly devastating.
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Under The RadarThere are some entertaining songs here ('Drive On, Driver,' 'I’ll Dream Alone') but overall, there is scarcely an affective moment on Distortion. [Winter 2008, p.83]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 16
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Mixed: 4 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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Feb 5, 2015
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JohnMcC.Apr 3, 2008Tuneless? I think not. A great pop album reminiscent of earlier Magnetic Fields records.
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BrianS.Jan 28, 2008