Wasps Nest
The 6ths are not so much a band as a forum to showcase the synth pop writing and arranging talents that Stephin Merritt normally reserves for his sometimes solo, sometimes group, project, the Magnetic Fields. OnWasps' Nests, the songwriter's first major-label release, 16 indie rock stars, from Superchunk's Mac McCaughan to Unrest/Air Miami's Mark Robinson take turns singing new Merritt compositions.But for all the reinterpreting you'd expect from staunch individualists like Sebadoh's Lou Barlow,Wasps' Nestsis surprisingly unified. Perhaps because the music and production is all Merritt's, none of the voices do much to alter the essential qualities of the songs' form and style. Every vocal performance, from the airy soprano of Heavenly's Amelia Fletcher on "Looking For Love (In the Hall of Mirrors)" to Merritt's own brooding bass on "Aging Spinsters," is moving but inconsequential to the music's identity.Just as well.Wasps' Nestsis designed to highlight Merritt, the writer and arranger. As he clarified last year on the Magnetic Fields' brilliantThe Charm of the Highway Strip, Merritt is the rare pop composer to ingest all the greats before him--from Bacharach and David to Morrissey and Marr--and to applie their infectious melodic gifts and lyrical grace to the sounds and tools of the day. Merritt's weapon of choice: the multilayered metallic drone and zap of the computerized keyboard. And he slays us every time.--Roni Sarig