- May 10, 2006 • 8:33 am PDT
- 1 responses
You may know Stephin Merrit as the brilliant voice behind the brilliant band Magnetic Fields. You may also know him and the cloying and annoying voice behind the grossly overrated Magnetic Fields. No matter. Sasha Frere-Jones, the music writer of the New Yorker, knows him as the second coming of George Wallace. This is because, when Mr. Merrit has his druthers, he doesn't prefer to listen to hip-hop, R&B, or what have you. This strikes some people, like Slate music writer John Cook, as totally and unmistakably ridiculous. It strikes us pretty much the same way. Luckily, Frere-Jones is a reasonable man, and makes his point more nuanced here.
