eMusic Review 0

eMusic Contributor

09.10.10

Revealing how big her heart is

2010 | Label: Kill Rock Stars / Redeye

In years past, Marnie Stern's shorthand description usually involved the words "guitar" and "shredding," but the New Yorker's third, self-titled album also reveals just how big her heart is. Here, Stern's frenetic fingertapping and the bonkers drumming of Zach Hill illustrate the way that the best response to bone-crushing sadness is, sometimes, a pealing laugh. The album opens with "For Ash," which is an exuberantly melancholy elegy; confidence and the lack thereof are also common lyrical themes, although the bravado with which Stern wields both her guitar and her anguished voice masks those facts on first listen. But that confidence only makes the discovery of her expressed vulnerability more powerful; that duality seems to set up the album's closer, the stunning love song "The Things You Notice" which has Stern, in chorus, murmuring "You win my heart/ You understand."

Wonderful Nervous Energy

I can't stop listening to this album because it gets better every spin. Hooks in every song is right! I can see where some might find it "avant guard", but "shrill" is not right. It's a deceptively melodic album and her guitar is just crazy! It's like Indie-Math-Pop. It's Polvo doing Sleigh Bells with Yngwie sitting in... except it's all coming out of this lil' blonde chick.

Winning drum and guitar chemistry, musicianship

The driving, anthemic first track will hopefully get you hooked. The hooks are hidden at first, but they are there, in every song, and the more you spin this record the more you'll probably find yourself going back to fulfill what you have stuck in your head. The combination of the guitar and drums in this album have a winning chemistry, and combined with original musicianship Marnie et al have really made it happen with this one.

Very Gifted Musician........

The guitar technique displayed on these tracks is truly prodigious. Marnie is obviously a gifted musician. That being said, in terms of listen-ability, I would probably not spend a great deal of time playing these tracks. I get the "art for art's sake" argument and i hope these recordings are part of a long journey of discovery and innovation. In terms of patron appreciation, I find the tracks to be a bit more avant-garde and shrill for my particular taste. Definitely worth a listen as an abstract painting is worth a look. I just don't "get it". I hope she continues to record and hopefully do some more "mainstream" stuff for the rest of us.