Distant Plastic Trees

Distant Plastic Trees
Studio album by The Magnetic Fields
Released	1991 (UK, JP) 1992 (US) January 1994 (reissue)
Length	36:18
Label	Red Flame (UK) RCA Victor (JP) PoPuP (US) Merge Records (reissue) MRG075
Producer	Stephin Merritt
The Magnetic Fields chronology
Distant Plastic Trees (1991) The Wayward Bus (1992)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	[2]
Piero Scaruffi	6.5/10[3]

Distant Plastic Trees, released in 1991, is the first album by The Magnetic Fields, with the lead vocals of Susan Anway. Merge Records reissued the album in 1994 as a double album compilation with the band's second album, The Wayward Bus. The song "Plant White Roses" was omitted from the Merge reissue.

The song "Babies Falling" is a cover of a song by The Wild Stares.

The Merge reissue includes a silence of four minutes and thirty-three seconds before "Railroad Boy" which could be an unlisted cover of John Cage's silent piece, 4′33″.

Track listing

All tracks written by Stephin Merritt and sung by Susan Anway except where noted.

1. "Railroad Boy" – 2:59
2. "Smoke Signals" – 3:28
3. "You Love to Fail" – 2:30
4. "Kings" – 2:15
5. "Babies Falling" – 3:18 (Steve Gregoropoulos/Fran Miller/Justin Burrill)
6. "Living in an Abandoned Firehouse with You" – 3:58 (Merritt/Gage/Gil)
7. "Tar-Heel Boy" – 2:26
8. "Falling in Love with the Wolfboy" – 4:05
9. "Josephine" – 3:08
10. "100,000 Fireflies" – 3:20
11. "Plant White Roses" – 4:52

Personnel

• Stephin Merritt - songwriting, instrumentation and production

Additional personnel

• Susan Anway - lead vocals
• Ken Michaels - engineering
• Wendy Smith - album cover
• Art Daly - insert photo

References