The 1st and 2nd albums by The Magnetic Fields; originally released in 1991 & 1992. 2xLP is black vinyl in two jackets with obi wrap and full album download.

CD is jewel case with printed insert. Distant Plastic Trees, the Magnetic Fields' first album, was originally released in England and Japan in 1991.

Merritt's accordion player, the novelist Daniel Handler, later noted that "this tinny and intimate recording, in quiet defiance of the reigning roar of pop music, recalls both the early, scratchy field recordings of folk music and the first experiments in electronic music_precisely the sort of stylistic balance the Magnetic Fields liked to achieve." The album includes the early-'90s college radio single "100,000 Fireflies" which had earlier appeared as a single on Harriet Records and was later covered by Superchunk.

The album artwork on both Distant Plastic Trees and The Wayward Bus was created by watercolorist Wendy Smith.