Distortion

2008 album from singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt and co. Distortion features the brilliant melodies and wry lyrics that Merritt has long been praised for, but, as the album title suggests, he serves them up with a twist. If the late, great Cole Porter had somehow been resurrected just in time to appear at the Coachella Indie Rock fest, the results might sound something like this: small, ironic tales of love and woe startlingly enveloped in layers of live feedback that recall the noisy Pop provocations of legendary Scottish quartet The Jesus and Mary Chain. As album producer, Merritt takes a completely novel approach to his deployment of feedback, going well beyond mere fuzzed-out guitar to incorporate cello, piano and accordion into his mad-scientist mix. What he's conjured up is a gorgeous drone that reverberates over the length of 13 tunes. It's like hearing a great three-minute Pop classic from someone else's car radio in the middle of a traffic jam: melodic bliss surfacing above the din.