The first song on the fourth record from Marnie Stern is called “Year of the Glad” — a nod to Infinite Jest as well as a declaration of its theme — and crests with Stern yelling, “Everything’s starting now.” For a second it feels like The Chronicles of Marnia is going to be an album about rejuvenation — about letting go of the things that trouble you and kicking open the door of the dark house to let the sunshine pour in. And then the next song starts, and before long Stern is shouting, “The fear creeping in, and I am losing hope in my body.” So it goes throughout Chronicles, a breathtaking spiral of sound that fizzes and pops like a pinwheel of fireworks. It’s not only Stern’s best record, but one of the best of the year to date.

Part of that is due to its keen focus. The name Marnie Stern rarely appears in print without the phrase “guitar virtuoso” somewhere close behind it, and while that descriptor is accurate, it often felt in Stern’s past work that the songwriting was second to the string-searing. Chronicles remedies that, offering Stern’s most assured melodies to date and burning out… read more »