The Magnetic Fields’ 50 Song Memoir (2017) chronicles the 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merritt’s life with one song per year. 50 Song Memoir is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including a 100-page book (sold separately. Please email info@kungfunation.com with inquiries.) with an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt. It is also available as a standalone bound book with a full-album download card.

Merritt began recording on his 50th birthday: February 9, 2015. In addition to his vocals, Merritt plays more than one hundred instruments on 50 Song Memoir, ranging from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics on 50 Song Memoir are nonfiction—in Merritt’s words, “a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis).” In the album’s liner notes, Merritt states: “I am the least autobiographical person you are likely to meet. I will probably not write any more true songs after this than I did before, but it’s been interesting working on it.”

Track List:

1 Absolutely Cuckoo
2 I Don't Believe In The Sun
3 All My Little Words
4 A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
5 Reno Dakota
6 I Don't Want To Get Over You
7 Come Back From San Francisco
8 The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side
9 Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits
10 The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be
11 I Think I Need A New Heart
12 The Book Of Love
13 Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
14 How Fucking Romantic
15 The One You Really Love
16 Punk Love
17 Parades Go By
18 Boa Constrictor
19 A Pretty Girl Is Like
20 My Sentimental Melody
21 Nothing Matters When We're Dancing
22 Sweet-Lovin' Man
23 The Things We Did And Didn't Do
24 Roses
25 Love is Like Jazz
26 When My Boy Walks Down The Street
27 Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old
28 Very Funny
29 Grand Canyon
30 No One Will Ever Love You
31 If You Don't Cry
32 You're My Only Home
33 (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy
34 My Only Friend
35 Promises Of Eternity
36 World Love
37 Washington, D.C.
38 Long-Forgotten Fairytale
39 Kiss Me Like You Mean It
40 Papa Was A Rodeo
41 Epitaph For My Heart
42 Asleep And Dreaming
43 The Sun Goes Down And The World Goes Dancing
44 The Way You Say Good-Night
45 Abigail, Belle Of Kilronan
46 I Shatter
47 Underwear
48 It's a Crime
49 Busby Berkeley Dreams
50 I'm Sorry I Love You
51 Acoustic Guitar
52 The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure
53 Love in the Shadows
54 Bitter Tears
55 Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget
56 Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
57 Experimental Music Love
58 Meaningless
59 Love is Like a Bottle of Gin
60 Queen of the Savages
61 Blue You
62 I Can't Touch You Anymore
63 Two Kinds of People
64 How to Say Goodbye
65 The Night You Can't Remember
66 For We Are the King of the Boudoir
67 Strange Eyes
68 Xylophone Track
69 Zebra