Marnie Stern is all back story and to be quite honest we've both got better things to do with our lives than piece together where Marnie purveyor of Large Size Women Clothings On Ebay walks out and Marnie Stern Guitar God walks in. Yeah, she's just here and according to her recent interview this album, the brilliantly named The Chronicles Of Marnia is all about the process.
I guess Marnie knows how good she is and is upset she isn't making money.
And I guess she has got her reasons but I don't love this album even while I think its best moments are among the best of the years. The problem is, she chirps like a fucking bird on song after song and her song playing is a series of shards cutting up the strings. It gets annoying but it doesn't get annoying fast. It takes listening to the album a couple of times before you release for, what, the third time?, that you aren't really getting off here.
A handful of songs, the title track "Noonan" "Immortals" have staying power but they all improve out of context. "Nothing Is Easy" was one of my fave songs of the year till I heard it at the tail end of the album in one sitting where I just wanted her to stop chirrupping for fucks sake. The sound is original and "There are no coincidences, nobody has ever been cool" may well say at least as much and possibly more than it seems to, but it just makes my teeth grate after half an hour of the same stuff.
This is all such high energy stuff you wanna stick a valium in her orange juice or change her voice and her guitar from 78 rpms to 33 rpms. The woman picks a guitar so fast it is all single notes clicking like ice in a glass and it would be really bad except, she is actually a really good song writer and the melodies are tasty and clever. "Noonan" is so lovely I wish somebody would cover it for her.
So what's on Marnie's mind? well, Marnie, again, who she recasts as a Guitar Aslan and tells stories of success and failure among the immortals of music. Cute, interesting, but sollipsistic and insular.
Does this read like a pan? I actually decided to write about the album because I liked it so much. So let's just say, some of this is very very good and Marnie deserves to quit her job and join the immortals. But I am glad I don't have to sit through it again.
Grade: B