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But "Reason" is more bracing and smart than clumsy. It's one of the few discs in memory to marry music and message while doing no damage to either.
-- Allison Stewart
DOWNLOAD THESE:"Collapse (Post-Amerika)," "Audience of One"
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
Marnie Stern
Marnie Stern's wildly inventive, laboriously titled sophomore album should appeal to at least two groups: music journos who get paid by the word and America's growing legion of guitar solo fantasizers. With video games such as "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" still surging in popularity, Stern's virtuosic fretwork feels right on time, her hyperactive songscapes approaching an almost dreamlike maximalism. At times, she sounds like an iPod vomiting out 10 songs at once.
And while "This Is It . . . " might be a tad more coherent than Stern's dizzying 2007 debut "In Advance of the Broken Arm," her mission remains the same: Find that tiny sliver of common ground between metal, no-wave and kids' music and start shredding. She hits the mark with "Transformer," its rapid-fire guitar flurries and doe-eyed chant-alongs conjuring the image of Eddie Van Halen elbowing his way onto the set of "Kids Incorporated." Stern's best songs, however, slow things down. "The Crippled Jazzer" benefits from a sluggish, AC/DC-ish strut while "Steely" finds its hook in an airy breakdown ripe for Pete Townshend-style windmilling.
Many listeners will find this music incredibly annoying, but for adventurous ears, Stern's eccentricities deliver loopy rewards. "Holding back will be forgotten," she chants mantralike during "Clone Cycle," hinting at some utopian future where everything will be blurted out. Perhaps Stern's best shredding still lies ahead.
-- Chris Richards
DOWNLOAD THESE:"The Crippled Jazzer," "Steely"
