Blending the organic and near-magical finger tapping style of guitar playing prodigy Marnie Stern has mastered with staccato vocal bursts, Chronicles of Marnia begins sounding almost experimentally synthetic. As stated, it is not. However, the otherworldly sounds Stern emits both with her vocal chords and guitar are almost unbelievable.
The record at once reminds me a bit of Deerhoof—not only joyfully fun and playfully rambunctious but also propulsive and frenetic. The opener “Year of the Glad,” which boasts these many qualities in the album’s first few minutes, claims a spot as one of the record’s best songs, but Stern certainly isn’t finished there. Almost every song is memorable and distinct, which isn’t an easy task with songs this busy and complex. Most folks, myself included, are likely to find themselves lost among the strange, labyrinthine song structures built on rapid shifts and surprising twists.
Full of rhythmic chanting and rapid fire lyric delivery, the record’s ten songs pass amazingly quickly. No song exceeds four minutes, and with their pacing, they feel even faster—brief explosions of blazing euphoria. Late album cut “Proof of Life” offers one of the most divergent songs in the collection with sparse interludes, low-range vocals, and rolling toms. Despite its shadowy tones among the surrounding sunlight, the song happens to be one of my personal favorites on the record.
One of the most notable aspects of Chronicles of Marnia lies in its sheer happiness. Full of major chords and shimmering guitar soloing, the album’s incidentally caustic nature doesn’t prevent it from being optimistically shiny. As Stern chants, “Don’t you want to be somebody?” it feels more like a motivational speaker than a condescending rhetorical question. The same goes for her statement of the song’s title in “Nothing Is Easy;” she sounds like she’s reminding us to keep our head up and keep walking rather than complaining.
In that same song, Stern sings, “It’s a pretty good mystery”—though these words find themselves surrounded by similarly cryptic lyrics, it sounds like she’s summing up this unpredictable thing we call life. The same description could easily apply to her newest album, but I’d say it’s a pretty great mystery, Ms. Stern—downright magical—and we’re happy to be along for the adventure.
