Marnie Stern spent the better part of a decade serving as a beacon of exuberance, vigour and complexity in rock music. Not content to rely on her famed two-hand tapping chops, Stern injected a much-needed jubilance into a math rock scene that was hard-pressed to beat allegations of self-seriousness. Her past releases were vexing and technical, captivating and fun. What they have not been, at least not recently, is frequent. Following 2013's essential The Chronicles of Marnia, Stern settled into a new chapter, raising two children and handling guitar duties for Late Night with Seth Meyers's in-house 8G Band. Eventually, the itch to write solo music came roaring back and the result is the aptly titled The Comeback Kid.
The Comeback Kid has all of the elements we've come to expect from Stern. "Plain Speak" opens the record with a brazenly honking guitar tone more reminiscent of a saxophone or clarinet than something in the string family. Its triplet drum fills create a sense of rhythmic exhilaration bordering on unease. "The Natural," like so many other Stern songs, has layers of dizzying tapping roiling underneath the other musical elements. The vocal arrangement of "Working Memory" consists of stacked harmonies and call-and-response vocals, creating the choral effect found all over Stern's catalogue.
One marked change from previous releases is the drumming. Previous drummers Zach Hill (Hella, Death Grips) and Kid Millions (Oneida) approached the beats on Marnie Stern records with intense lyricism, often providing a counter-rhythmic layer to already cacophonous guitar arrangements. Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara maintains the borderline elastic approach to beat creation on The Comeback Kid, but his execution of that stylistic pillar is significantly less erratic. "Til It's Over" is the perfect example, with the standout track's more sparse rhythmic arrangement allowing for the emotional valence of the song to take centre stage. The end of "Get It Good" makes use of a similar tactic, with the bass guitar being pulled out entirely to let two intertwining guitar lines take centre stage. Both tracks are brief reminders that Stern can serve listeners catharsis through simplicity when she wants to.
Fans of Stern's earlier output might be torn on The Comeback Kid. Some will be ecstatic that a master of her craft is back without missing a single beat — Indeed, that's part of what the record honours, with some of the lyrical content on "Believing Is Seeing" serving as an ode to not dulling the spontaneity and idiosyncrasy of the songwriting process by overthinking. Other listeners will wonder how a decade of playing in a very different musical context could have possibly resulted in a collection of songs that would hardly sound amiss on any previous Marnie Stern record. Thankfully, the music is too strong to spend much time dwelling on what could have been, and Stern's sound is too unapologetically hers to expect anything else. Ultimately, these are celebration songs, compelling the listener to look forward, put matters into their own hands and create something good while they can.
(Joyful Noise)The Comeback Kid has all of the elements we've come to expect from Stern. "Plain Speak" opens the record with a brazenly honking guitar tone more reminiscent of a saxophone or clarinet than something in the string family. Its triplet drum fills create a sense of rhythmic exhilaration bordering on unease. "The Natural," like so many other Stern songs, has layers of dizzying tapping roiling underneath the other musical elements. The vocal arrangement of "Working Memory" consists of stacked harmonies and call-and-response vocals, creating the choral effect found all over Stern's catalogue.
One marked change from previous releases is the drumming. Previous drummers Zach Hill (Hella, Death Grips) and Kid Millions (Oneida) approached the beats on Marnie Stern records with intense lyricism, often providing a counter-rhythmic layer to already cacophonous guitar arrangements. Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara maintains the borderline elastic approach to beat creation on The Comeback Kid, but his execution of that stylistic pillar is significantly less erratic. "Til It's Over" is the perfect example, with the standout track's more sparse rhythmic arrangement allowing for the emotional valence of the song to take centre stage. The end of "Get It Good" makes use of a similar tactic, with the bass guitar being pulled out entirely to let two intertwining guitar lines take centre stage. Both tracks are brief reminders that Stern can serve listeners catharsis through simplicity when she wants to.
Fans of Stern's earlier output might be torn on The Comeback Kid. Some will be ecstatic that a master of her craft is back without missing a single beat — Indeed, that's part of what the record honours, with some of the lyrical content on "Believing Is Seeing" serving as an ode to not dulling the spontaneity and idiosyncrasy of the songwriting process by overthinking. Other listeners will wonder how a decade of playing in a very different musical context could have possibly resulted in a collection of songs that would hardly sound amiss on any previous Marnie Stern record. Thankfully, the music is too strong to spend much time dwelling on what could have been, and Stern's sound is too unapologetically hers to expect anything else. Ultimately, these are celebration songs, compelling the listener to look forward, put matters into their own hands and create something good while they can.