April 12–19, 2001

critic pick| rock/pop

The Magnetic Fields

Every hyper-autobiographical singer-songwriter should be made to listen to Stephin Merritt, a man so confident in the lyrical value of the universal human experience that he hardly needs to tap into a diary. And it won’t even be a painful experience, thanks to Merritt’s keen sense of melody — which can grasp synth-pop, country & western or cabaret — and his dry wit. On 1999’s already-legendary three-CD 69 Love Songs (Merge) by his Magnetic Fields (Merritt’s main gig, he’s got three other bands besides), he treats sexual preference as a mere formality: Is that a man singing to a man, say, or a man singing as a woman singing to a man, or… who cares? It’s a wonder how Merritt’s songs nail the feelings you’ve had for someone, no matter what your pleasure is. Opening at their Troc show will be, yes, novelist Rick (The Ice Storm) Moody, a man with an even darker sense of humor.

—Michael Pelusi

Sat., April 14, 8 p.m. The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE.