Going far afield

“I think my brain does work a bit differently from other people’s,” says Future Bible Heroes songwriter Stephin Merritt, asked about the delightfully weird notions on the group’s second album, “Eternal Youth,” in which aliens fall in love with Doris Day and an old virgin meeting Jesus chastises him for being a pervert.

The prolific Merritt, best known as leader of longtime indie rock favorite the Magnetic Fields, cites his recent reading of James Baldwin’s “Another Country.”

“I noticed not so much that the adjectives were superfluous and inappropriate,” he says, “but that, for pages at a time, all the adjectives began with letters early in the alphabet, exactly as though Baldwin had been writing with a dictionary by his side, choosing words at random, but so languidly that he couldn’t bother opening past page 200.”

Merritt also notices the emotional details that pass by other people. He certainly has a knack for Brian Wilson-esque painful honesty, which has earned wider recognition since the Magnetic Fields’ acclaimed 1999 three-disc collection, “69 Love Songs.”

With twisted, torchy electro-pop tunes that recall such ‘80s synth giants as Blondie and Erasure, FBH is the most zeitgeist-conscious of various Merritt side projects that serve his restless creativity. In FBH, Merritt’s cheerful-to-unsettling lyrics, sung in a deadpan crystal soprano by Magnetic Fields keyboardist-manager Claudia Gonson, are juxtaposed with bright-to-murky electronic soundscapes by Boston-based DJ and musician Chris Ewen.

Merritt sang on FBH’s first album, 1997’s “Memories of Love,” but Gonson says putting her out front helps further differentiate FBH from the Magnetic Fields. She also feels that writing for other voices inspires Merritt to write different kinds of songs.

“Eternal Youth” certainly swaps viewpoints easily. The new-wave kitsch of “I’m a Vampire,” cooed by a bloodsucker who’s full of her undead self, is followed by “From Some Dying Star,” apparently the song of the vamp’s dread-filled yet fascinated victim.

Or not. Gonson allows that the album’s many parts could be taken as a larger story. But, she adds, any connection is “more elusive and metaphorical, like a theme of ‘eternal youth,’ [which] applies both for vengeful vampires and ‘80s club kids.”

Despite its bleak notes, “Eternal Youth” doesn’t wallow in misery. Indeed, the closing cut, “The World Is a Disco Ball,” is wistfully comforting.

“It’s part of the age-old, wonderful notion of dancing at the end of the world,” Gonson says. “When things feel apocalyptic, or desperately lonely, you can reassure yourself by knowing that ‘Someone, somewhere’s dancing all night long.’ ”

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Future Bible Heroes

Where: Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood

When: Today, 8 p.m.

Cost: $15

Info: (310) 276-6168