• Track Listing

Five CD set. 2017 release from the alt-rock band led by Stephin Merritt. 50 Year Memoir chronicles the 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merritt's life with one song per year; it was produced by Stephin Merritt with additional production by Thomas Bartlett and Charles Newman. This set includes an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt. Stephin began recording on his 50th birthday: February 9, 2015. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics on 50 Song Memoir are nonfiction-in Merritt's words, "a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis)." In addition to his vocals on all 50 songs, Merritt plays more than 100 instruments on 50 Song Memoir, ranging from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus.