album of the week: 3.4

Marnie Stern
The Chronicles of Marnia
(2013)

why you'll love it:  Impressive guitar work, wonderful uplifting lyrics and vocals
why you'll hate it:  No Zach Hill, not as wild as previous works



It's amazing how much my perception of Marnie Stern has changed over the past 5 years.  Around the time of her (totally killer) album, 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 (2008), my short summary of her was "Crazy Hella fangirl who shreds on guitar, and has an odd infatuation with breaking the rules of time and space".  I used to judge her songs on the scale of "how damn nuts can she make this?", and little more.  Her 2010 self titled release changed all that.  At first i begrudged the repression of wacky super-fast songs about time travel, but eventually, the bare emotion and honest personality put into her new songs became an endearing replacement.

I jumped into The Chronicles of Marnia not even caring that the god-like Zach Hill would be replaced on drums.  I wasn't here for madness anymore.  I was just here for Marnie.  There still is trademark fingerpicking, and few short bursts of ranting style delivery on this new album; but it's more cleverly woven into the song structure now.  The real draw of this album is Marnie's ability to come off as a real person, a peer.  Her lyrics are not nuggets of wisdom handed down to the clueless listener, it's just sharing a relatable life with you.  Being normal may sound counter-productive in rock music, but I find it novel. 

It's a bit tough to sell this record on a brand new listener.  There are no real clear singles.  Nothing that punches you in the face.  There is a lot of talent to speak of, but it's spread evenly across the album with subtlety.  This won't go down as Marnie Stern's best album, but damn if it isn't enjoyable.  It hasn't failed to put me in a better mood in any of the dozen times I've listened.