As he releases new Magnetic Fields album 50 Song Memoir, Stephin Merritt doesn't delve into the past for his Baker's Dozen list but instead gives tQ an A-Z of some contemporary favourites, from Japan to Marc Almond, bawdy cockney songs and the BBC Radiophonic Workship. Pic by Marcelo Krasilcic
On the day that would mark the inimitable writer's centennial birthday, Darran Anderson considers the lifetime's work of a true genius and a true bullshit artist, and how - on issues as pressingly contemporary-seeming as censorship, surveillance and the War on Drugs - his work is as relevant now as it's ever been