Singer/songwriter Stephen Merritt leads the college-fave band the Magnetic Fields and now the 6ths. In either guise, Merritt writes pure pop for emotionally devastated people; his comely melodies enshroud twisted, distrustful lyrics – as if the Cowsills were possessed by the lunatic cast of Twin Peaks. In the wisely titled Wasps' Nests, 15 shimmering examples of Merritt's craft are interpreted by the elite of the low-fi rock mafia. The 6ths deliver auditory bliss like cotton candy for the ear – but there's a disquieting aftertaste, sticking in slightly sinister avenues of the subconscious.

The gathering of talent here includes Barbara Manning (San Francisco Seals), Lou Barlow (Sebadoh), Georgia Hubley (Yo La Tengo) and Mac McCaughan (Superchunk), and they all dance through Merritt's bubblegum jungle with deadpan aplomb and cautious grace. Luna's Dean Wareham unfolds the cold confession of "Falling Out of Love (With You)" with a deceptive, horrifying sweetness. Barlow's whispery interpretation of "In the City in the Rain" inspires wonder; his vocals are drizzled with a daydreamy aura that oddly betrays nothing and everything in the agonized beats of a broken heart.

There's something seductive about Merritt's stream-of-consciousness wordplay. Strange observations and contemplations twirl about Merritt's world of the hapless and the lost. "Who do you love when I'm out of town?" sings the Tall Dwarfs' Chris Knox in "When I'm Out of Town." "The butcher, the baker/The thin undertaker who makes not a sound."

Arranged and produced by Merritt in his home studio, Wasps' Nests is a chilly, stunning and sad symphony of breakup songs written with the contradictory beauty and cheer of some of the greatest pop singles of the '60s. Merritt's marriage of the cheap tinkle of keyboards graced with hushed vocals and spacier synth odysseys is both masterful and dangerous. In its quiet discontent and incongruous flourishes, Wasps' Nests ambushes its listeners with unanticipated force – not unlike the mumbled roar of the ocean struggling to be heard within the convoluted depths of a conch shell. (RS 710)

KARA MANNING