The Charm of the Highway Strip

The Charm of the Highway Strip
Studio album by The Magnetic Fields
Released	April 18, 1994
Genre	Indie rock
Length	33:15
Label	Merge Records MRG055
Producer	Stephin Merritt
The Magnetic Fields chronology
Holiday (1994) The Charm of the Highway Strip (1994) Get Lost (1995)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Robert Christgau	(B+)[1]
PopMatters	(positive) link
Piero Scaruffi	link
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The Charm of the Highway Strip is the fourth studio album by The Magnetic Fields, released in 1994. It is the first Magnetic Fields album to have its original release with Merge Records. Its title, lyrics and musical styling are a nod to country music, though the songs of Stephin Merritt remain rooted in classic pop and synthesizers. Virtually every song deals with roads and travel - and several songs' lyrics implicitly reference vampires.

The title of the album comes from a quote by J. B. Jackson, 1959: "Let us hope that the merits and charm of the highway strip are not so obscure but that they will be accepted by a wider public."

This is the group's second album in which songwriter Merritt does all of the singing.

The album was released on vinyl for the first time on May 6, 2008 via Merge Records. This marks the very first appearance of a Magnetic Fields album on vinyl.

Lush covered "I Have the Moon" as single B-side, also in Japanese/Canadian released album Topolino.

The song "Dust Bowl" was used during an episode of the television series version of This American Life ("Pandora's Box").

Track listing

All tracks written by Stephin Merritt.

1. "Lonely Highway" – 3:06
2. "Long Vermont Roads" – 3:27
3. "Born on a Train" – 3:46
4. "I Have the Moon" – 2:37
5. "Two Characters in Search of a Country Song" – 3:33
6. "Crowd of Drifters" – 3:36
7. "Fear of Trains" – 3:15
8. "When the Open Road Is Closing In" – 3:39
9. "Sunset City" – 4:05
10. "Dust Bowl" – 2:20

Personnel

• Stephin Merritt - vocals, instrumentation
• Sam Davol - cello
• Claudia Gonson - management

References

1. ^ Christgau, Robert. "The Magnetic Fields". Robert Christgau. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=865.