E-Mail This Article to a Friend i candy Stephin Merritt finds a new theme for the Magnetic Fields BY MATT ASHARE

Splitting hairs is something Stephin Merritt, the singing/songwriting leader of the Magnetic Fields, relishes. Fine distinctions are one of the arts of his craft, which has come to encompass such a wide variety of sounds, styles, and genres that it’s impossible to classify him. A sense of humor is not something he lacks — his last Magnetic Fields album (they play the Berklee Performance Center this Saturday and Sunday) was a critically adored, three-CD set of, uh, 69 love songs titled 69 Love Songs (Merge). And his lyrics have always been full of clever puns and twists of phrase. But his is a dry wit. And he does not suffer foolishness (or perhaps I should say sloppiness) — particularly when it concerns the words used to describe his work. So when I suggest that by following up 69 Love Songs with the new i (Nonesuch), an album of 14 songs that all begin with the letter "i," he has embraced the concept of the "concept album," he politely disagrees.

"They are actually theme albums," he suggests over the phone from his NYC apartment. "I see a theme album as an album of songs that all go together in some way, whereas a concept album is based around a thought or a continuity. Frank Sinatra put out a whole set of theme albums — his whole series of ‘Songs to Young Lovers’ in the ’50s, for example. The idea of the concept album brings to mind ’70s prog rock."

True enough. And though Merritt excludes very little from his musical palette, indulgent prog-rock is not his cup of tea. Nonetheless, like 69 Love Songs, which set romantic yearnings against backdrops that ranged from Tin Pan Alley balladry to synth-pop confections to punk-rock ranting, i is all over the musical map. There are straightforward pop gems like "I Don’t Believe You," with its strummed guitars, melodic banjo picking, and strong cello hook; melancholy new-wavy dance tracks like "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend," with its lightly pumping disco beat; and more-classical-leaning pieces like "I Die," with its pizzicato strings and lilting melodies. Indeed, with its largely organic instrumentation (including harpsichord on the aptly titled "In an Operetta"), i would seem to be influenced by the stylings of early-Weimar-era Berlin cabaret.

But again, I’m off the mark. As Merritt points out, it was Vienna, not Berlin, he had in mind when he wrote "some" of the songs on i. Beyond that, he’s happy to admit that there’s no underlying significance to his choice of theme on the new album, or even on 69 Love Songs. "The themes are pointedly arbitrary. i is a set of songs with something in common. But what they have in common is only the title of each song. Both 69 Love Songs and i have easy themes. It’s not hard to write a love song, and it’s not hard to write a song beginning with the letter ‘i.’ All you have to do is write a song and give it a title that begins with the letter ‘i.’ I wanted to do something different from 69 Love Songs — something less open-ended but still with a variety of musical formats. It’s diverse in terms of genre, but it’s not diverse in instrumentation or texture."

Indeed, in the almost 15 years of this "band," i is the first Magnetic Fields album recorded primarily with one group of players — the live line-up of drummer Claudia Gonson, cellist Sam Davol, and guitarist John Woo. Past albums have featured Merritt recording either alone with a variety of synths, drum machines, and guitars or, more recently, with a rotating cast of players. "I’ve always liked having some sort of format to work within. I like artificial constraints. If there are no constraints, then I make my own up. This time I tried to use no synthesizers, have everything be hand played, use hardly any reverb, and be the only singer. I wrote all the songs in keys so that I’d be at the top of my range rather than the bottom, like I usually am. I tried to make it a soft-rock record — in the vein of a Roberta Flack or the Carpenters — but I didn’t stick closely enough to that for anyone to really notice. But it doesn’t have any distorted guitars or big, oil-drum-style drum kits. And I’m not a screamer. If I could sing like Bon Scott, you’d had heard it by now."

What i does have are 14 examples of the artful songcraft fans have come to expect from Merritt, whether he’s making a Magnetic Fields CD or recording with any of his other projects (the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, Future Bible Heroes). There are sad songs that amuse and happier ones with a taste of the tragic. There are accessible songs in an indie-rock style and more challenging songs based on a broader definition of pop. But even when he’s singing at the very top of his register on "In an Operetta," Merritt never overreaches. Of course, he’d disagree. "Oh, I overreach all the time. I just never release those songs."

The Magnetic Fields perform this Saturday and Sunday, May 22 and 23, at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston; call (617) 931-2000.