Setting out to make a record that was “more Jesus and Mary Chain than the Jesus and Mary Chain,” Stephin Merritt’s biggest achievement with The Magnetic Fields’ Distortion is in pulling back the flawless sheen of the Fields’ 2004 conceptual paean to the letter I and the somewhat alienating sophistication of Showtunes to place The Magnetic Fields firmly back in the realm of tinny early ’90s college rock. Despite the lyrical content of Distortion standouts “Old Fools” and “Too Drunk to Dream,” Merritt hasn’t sounded this young and energetic in years — if ever.

Tarted up with slap-dash artwork (it looks like it was composed in 10 minutes with some old-school clip art and a bootlegged copy of Word), Distortion rings with sloppy treble and feedback from start to finish. A longtime sufferer of hyperacusis (a hearing defect in which environmental sounds are painfully loud — at Magnetic Fields’ rare live performances, audience applause leaves Merritt grimacing and holding his fingers in his ears), Merritt’s waves of fuzz give at least some insight into what his daily life is like. According to the Hyperacusis Network website, “The person who has hyperacusis can’t simply get up and walk away from noise. Instead, the volume on the whole world seems stuck on high.” Given its ragged glory and fuzz-tone pop perfection, Distortion is Merritt’s attempt, it seems, to set hyperacusis to music. And it’s a beautiful thing.

Splitting vocals with Claudia Gonson (her best moments here being the chilly “Till the Bitter End” and the sugar-fuelled “California Girls”), Merritt’s compositional prowess is still in full effect. Constantly re-inventing himself and doubtless the world’s finest living pop laureate (not to mention indie rock’s favourite Eeyore), Distortion sees Merritt jumping back into the murk of The Magnetic Fields’ earliest, most ear-catching — and scratching — adventures in sound.