This album is a “50 Song Memoir” of Stephin Merritt, the front man of the Magnetic Fields. Every song is intended to document a year in Merritt’s life, from early childhood to the present day.
Merrit began working on the album after receiving the challenge to write a song for every year of his life from the president of Nonesuch Records, Robert Hurwitz.
Merrit had this to say about the album:
I am the least autobiographical person you are likely to meet. I will probably not write any more true songs after this than I did before, but it’s been interesting working on it.