Andrew Jaffe: Leaves on the Line

Glad to read that I wasn’t the only one to notice the Magnetic Fields homage in Bruce Springsteen’s “Girls in their Summer Clothes”:

Enter wry New Yorker Stephin Merritt, Mr Magnetic Field. Merritt is a pop auteur of great distinction, if not wide renown; he probably earns more comparisons to Cole Porter than royalties. He might be best known for his songs accompanying the Lemony Snicket series of children’s books rather than the Magnetic Fields’ triple album of 1999, 69 Love Songs. (But was ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’, on Bruce Springsteen’s Magic album, a Merritt tribute?)

—Kitty Empire, The Observer