Sharing an ethos with Bill Callahan of Smog, Stephin Merritt mines a personal talent for turning out wry, darkly beautiful tales in the Lo-Fi home-recordist tradition. Yet even without his signature irony and studio prowess, Magnetic Fields -- a name he's worked under since 1990's debut Distant Plastic Trees -- are an intuitive pop experiment rife with disarmingly well-crafted melody. Creating not only syrupy synth pop that draws textural comparisons to Brian Eno and Gary Num...  [+]