The Magnetic Fields announce new album Quickies with lead single "The Day the Politicians Died"

"The Day the Politicians Died" is one of Stephin Merritt's 28 songs that will feature on Quickies, and marks the first single from The Magnetic Fields since 2017's 50 Song Memoir.

As Pitchfork notes, Quickies is made up of short songs, all running under three minutes, and will be released across five vinyl EP's in May.

Merritt says of the new record, "I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long."

He adds, "Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row."

Quickies features The Magnetic Field bandmates Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo, and contributions from longtime friends and collaborators Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman.

Tracklist:

1. Castles of America
2. The Biggest Tits in History
3. The Day the Politicians Died
4. Castle Down a Dirt Road
5. Bathroom Quickie
6. My Stupid Boyfriend
7. Love Gone Wrong
8. Favorite Bar
9. Kill a Man a Week
10. Kraftwerk in a Blackout
11. When She Plays the Toy Piano
12. Death Pact (Let’s Make A)
13. I’ve Got a Date with Jesus
14. Come, Life, Shaker Life!
15. (I Want to Join A) Biker Gang
16. Rock ‘n’ Roll Guy
17. You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub
18. Let’s Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)
19. The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee
20. When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit
21. The Price You Pay
22. The Boy in the Corner
23. Song of the Ant
24. I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail
25. Evil Rhythm
26. She Says Hello
27. The Little Robot Girl
28. I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again