Marnie Stern
Kill Rock Stars (2010)
why you'll love it: A surprisingly mature approach, crazy good drums/guitar
why you'll hate it: not enough wild unpredictability.
Marnie Stern is one of those personalities where superficiality is enough. She's a Hella fanatic, has an amazing finger-picking guitar talent, has a charming bubbly vocal delivery, and writes a lot of songs about math and time-traveling. 2008's This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That was a triumph of organized chaos. Its as if she can just coast on "insanity with talent" for an entire career… which makes an introverted self titled album a bit of a surprise.
There are no corny acoustic ballads, but a distinct change in tone. To accommodate this outpouring of the heart, no songs truly explode with "Woah, what am I listening to?" levels of insanity. There is a steady flow of rocking provided by Marnie's guitar playing and Zach Hill again on drums, but the music structure isn't priority, thus rendering some of this album forgettable.
The rest adapts well in subtle ways. "Risky Biz" is a catchy little number. "The Things You Notice" and "Transparency is The New Mystery" mirror her humbling lyrics well. After a few listeners, I started to see interesting vocal progressions in "For Ash" and "Female Guitar Players Are The New Black". To be honest, the only song that feels like the Marnie Stern I had became enamored with in the first place is "Nothing Left"
I enjoy the fact that this album exists; and it's nice to hear Marnie show us a more personal side. None of the songs are bad at all. Zach Hill is along for the ride, how can the quality possibly slip? It just isn't very representative of what she does best.
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