Hear the Magnetic Fields songwriter’s unreleased material.

Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields fame is putting out an album of unreleased rarities, called “Obscurities.” The record contains tracks from writing sessions that led up to the seminal release “69 Love Songs” as well as work from Merritt’s side projects Buffalo Rome, the 6ths and the Gothic Archies. The opener, “Forever and a Day,” is from an unfinished sci-fi musical he was working on with Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snickett).

“Obscurities” drops August 23 on Merge, but you can stream it below and see a track-by-track description over at Paste.

[Via Paste.]