Album: Magnetic Fields, Love at the Bottom of the Sea (Domino)

The latest album from the almost self-destructively prolific Stephin Merritt finds him once again deeply in love with synth pop.

High on saccharine and low on fidelity, LATBOTS has one foot in the recent 8-bit scene, the other in Merritt's own back catalogue. It's referential; it trawls the usual sexual back alleys with topics including transvestitism and paraphilia, and it's deliberately, defiantly cheesy. The only problem with cheese is that it so often ends with grating.