Founded by Superchunk’s Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan at the tail end of the 1980s, most of Merge Records’ most famous releases landed between the slacker-rock boom of the 1990s and the college radio staples of the 2000s—In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Funeral, Gimme Fiction, and so on. Yet with each of these distinctive releases somehow becoming homogenized as quote-unquote indie rock, it can be hard to recognize the vast reach of sounds the label has long been peddling, from Trail of Dead’s raucous 1999 debut Madonna to the even more eclectic present era of Afro-funk ensemble Ibibio Sound Machine and First-Nation EDM experimenters The Halluci Nation.
The label felt like a natural fit for TORRES when she joined their ranks at the top of the decade, with Mackenzie Scott’s shapeshifting project consistently achieving the core Merge tenets of unexpected instrumentation and engaging lyricism. Those themes carry through on TORRES’s third release through the label, What an Enormous Room, which was introduced with the enormous-room filling industrial-rock anthem “Collect,” followed shortly after by the reduced-scale neo-folk ballad “I Got the Fear”—both of which serve the purpose of encouraging the listener to recalibrate by celebrating our W’s and considering that maybe—just maybe—the L’s we’ve been forecasting are merely projections of the negative echo chambers we’re increasingly finding ourselves within.
In the spirit of cleansing palates with fresh perspectives and a wide range of sounds, we asked TORRES to share her five favorite albums released by Merge Records. With a few (relatively) conventional singer-songwriters in the mix, the shortlist also includes forays into vibrant alt-R&B and abrasive hardcore punk. Check out her picks below, and stream What an Enormous Room—out today—here.
The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs
I was a freshman in college when I found out about 69 Love Songs, so I was a decade late to the game. It’s the first album I heard by The Magnetic Fields and it instantly ossified Stephin Merritt’s position as one of my favorite singers and songwriters of all time. My friend Emmett [Miller, of Diarrhea Planet] brought his classical guitar into the lobby of our dorm one night and started playing all these really moving renditions or several songs from the album, and from then on I was obsessed. My friend Heather ended up getting me the CD box a couple years later and I would cry in my car to it constantly. Personal favorites include “I Don’t Want to Get Over You,” “You’re My Only Home,” “Long-Forgotten Fairytale,” and “I Shatter.” It remains one of my most beloved albums ever, and definitely my favorite to be released on Merge.
Dawn Richard, Second Line
I’ve had the absolute pleasure of seeing Dawn perform live twice now, and I cannot emphasize enough how brilliant she is in that sphere. If you haven’t seen her show, please make a point of doing so. This album is spectacular. She’s a producer, writer, singer, dancer, and composer, and the vision she orchestrates and executes shines crisply on this album. One thing I love about the way Dawn thinks about music is how she puts it all together in a way that feels more like a fluid movement than individual songs, and there’s always a strong visual component. I can tell she wants it to be an all-encompassing sensory experience. It’s not like, “Here’s this one, and now I’m going to do this one”—the record is meant to be experienced as a complete opus. She makes it look and sound effortless, but she’s literally doing it all. Dancing and singing and projecting this all-knowing confidence that I hardly see matched by anyone.
Fucked Up, Year of the Ox
I got to see Fucked Up play Exit/In summer 2011 when I lived in Nashville. My friend Evan Bird took me and was like, “I promise you’re gonna love this.” I was pretty blown away. It was my entry point into Fucked Up, and I think the live setting was the right way to be introduced to it, which is usually how I feel about discovering a band. I like to see it live before I hear it recorded if I can, because it just makes more sense when you can see it all in front of you—I think it gives a better sense of what a band is trying to impart. Definitely a huge inspiration for IDLES, no? Forgive me if one of those guys reads this and is like, “Absolutely not!” But yeah, this was my first time hearing orchestral sort of classically brilliant music paired with that undeniable, brash speak-singing that makes this band so powerful.
Wye Oak, The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
Jenn [Wasner] is a genius! I think it’s actually really difficult to capture an artist’s full energy on a recording, but her massive presence is completely realized here to the point where you feel like you’re there in the room with her. I love the production so much. The fuzzy guitars and synths and great, trippy beats are complementary to her clear, singular voice. It just feels obvious to me when someone makes something with conviction and a thorough sense of purpose, and this is one of those records.
Lambchop, TRIP
This record is devastating and perfect. Mac McCaughan gave me this CD a few years ago and I decided to listen in my studio one day while I was doing random tasks. I had to stop what I was doing so I could weep. An instant favorite for me, this one.
