Review: This Is It And I Am It And Your Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That

Marnie Stern

Some great albums are classified as such because they are made to produce great singles. Of course, for a recording to reach this status it has to be more than just a collection of hit singles, but the reality is that certain artists or groups are better suited to constructing solid albums that are elevated to the level of memorability by the singles they produce; bands like Duran Duran and Franz Ferdinand, and artists like Michael Jackson, whilst being behind albums that are standard inclusions on most benchmark ‘must have’ lists, will always be remembered for earth-shattering songs rather than complete albums.

On the other hand, there are albums that run the whole way through and you just don’t know what hit you, in both a figurative and literal way. To begin with, the album just works; it plays start to finish without a dull moment, trapping its listener in a web of storytelling and leaving them wanting more at its conclusion. Alongside this, it seems to pass by in such a flurry that it scarcely gives its listener a chance to digest it in a song by song sense; Endtroducing . . . is undoubtedly one of the better albums to come out of the nineties, but play it to me a track at a time and I’d struggle to put a name to each individual recording. Exile on Main Street, widely regarded as The Rolling Stones’ finest album, is a masterpiece, and, to be fair, has it’s share of memorable moments, but at the same time it doesn’t contain anything that can, toe to toe, match the career-defining singles of their earlier lives, and yet it still manages to work as an overall musical statement much more effectively than many of their other full length works.

Marnie Stern’s latest release, This Is It . . ., is clearly an album that is more of the latter than the former, though without any of the inspired memorability that is required to elevate it to anything more than a decent listen. This is a stream of songs in a true sense, a miscellany of music that flows onward towards a rushing conclusion, a ceaseless sonic assault that contains little in the way of distinction between each piece, but much in the way of on overall feeling, a general air of celebration that manages to avoid all specificity. Stern’s yelps punctuate a relentless collection of riffs that she pumps out with alarming ferocity, a refreshing change from the clichéd songstress that either trills mournfully from behind a piano or croons huskily whilst strumming an acoustic guitar. Say what you will about her vocal ability, she will never be accused of lacking panache, delivering her typically obscure lyrics with a bite that clamps down over the entire album.

However, this concept of a record-spanning feel is not without its drawbacks if it is not executed flawlessly. There is an important difference between carrying a theme over an album with various linking sounds, and having an album that just sounds similar. Whilst writing off the tracks on this album as repetitive stylistically is to do Marnie Stern a disservice, at the same time one can’t help but feel, particularly with her rapid-fire riffing, that in the end it’s all just her shrieked lyrics stapled over the opening licks to ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’. The relentlessness of her approach still serves as a bracing change to the status quo, but only until the listener tires of it and switches off for a little while, and, for better or worse, it is not possible to switch off from this album without physically switching it off.

At the same time, it is perhaps that innocent repetition that endears most about this album; it is the sincerity of Marnie Stern’s aims and the total lack of irony in her delivery that remains with the listener long after the music itself has faded. This is not an album that will be remembered forever in the minds of consumers worldwide. After listening to this, you will not spend the next week picking parts of its songs out of your head because they’re catchy enough to infect a robot. However, the feeling that underpins the music, the concept of free spirited festivity, is something that will stay with you, clinging to you like the smoke that floats through your threads days after a big night out. Much like the smoke, This Is It . . . will aggravate you at times, but it will also serve as a reminder of grander things, and, in a life that feels intent on knocking us down, sometimes a reminder is all we need to get back up.


+: Sustains overall feeling throughout entire album, totally devoid of irony, sweet chops guitar-wise, nice change from the wet blanket mold of singers
-: A little bit light on in terms of variation, tends toward repetition, not necessarily what one would call an 'easy' listen, totally inappropriate background music

Transformer - Marnie Stern