meandthestereo

Artist: Marnie Stern
Album: This Is It & I Am It & You Are It & So Is That & He Is It & She Is It & It Is It & That Is That
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Release Date: October 7th, 2008
Decision: 3/5 Mediocre…After a While
Favorite Tunes: “Prime”, “Ruler”

1. The Background

Whoa, this album will wake you up! New York City musician Marnie Stern has released her 2nd album on Kill Rock Stars (a while back mind you, I’m a bit late) and she definitely has my attention. Trying to disregard the extremely long name of this album, I sat down and listened to these 12 short tracks for about a month before thinking about writing a review for it. A note of interest: Marnie Stern did all the guitar tracks for this. Amazing!

2. The Substance

I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been to actually mix this record. It’s already very well produced with what seems to be 2 – 4 guitar tracks at some points and the most hyper drummer I have ever heard on a recording, so it’s amazing that the producer was able to make sense of all the noise that is generated by these tracks. There is definitely no “space” on this album. Every little bit of emptiness is filled in by extremely fast (and accurate) guitar work, and when the guitar calms down, the drums are there to keep the songs full. Ms Stern’s voice isn’t mixed as well as it seemed it could be though. The drum and guitar tracks are very loud and audible, and, most of the time, the clearly different parts are identifiable; however, it sometimes is difficult to hear the lyrics being sung during these always busy songs. It’s especially frustrating on “Ruler”, which is track 4 of this album. It’s one of my favorite songs, and it has some very sweet sounding vocals sung at a high pitch and some nice backing vox stuff, but I really wish some of it came out clearer because I enjoyed her voice so much. With the ability to showcase great guitar work and drum beats, it would’ve been great to also showcase Marnie Stern’s vocals. Edit: Oh, and supposedly they did some bass tracks for this album? Where the Hell were they? I’m sure I didn’t hear any and it would’ve been interesting to clearly hear how they mixed those in.

3. The Decision

3/5 Mediocre…After a While. I really enjoyed half of this album, but after 5 or 6 tracks of this very busy and energetic music, I found myself wanting her to slow down a bit and throw in some variety. Ms Stern is clearly very good at what she does, and she is an amazing guitarist and songwriter; however, we’re still dealing with an album here, and, though the point may be to rake in as much cash as possible, I still feel it necessary to create a piece of work that is interesting throughout. I don’t think I was able to sit still and listen to this album end to end more than once. But I do suggest you pick up this album, or at least purchase the first 4 tracks of it. The first four songs are extremely fun and give you this kind of cutesy, metally, rocky, weird feeling of energy to start off or end your day. Ms Stern has a wonderful voice, though I wish I could’ve heard it more clearly, and the lyrics are fun and the guitars are loud and the drums are fast and accurate, but it’s just too much. In a society in which singles are more important, there are definitely some tracks you should pick up (”Ruler” is my favorite), but as for picking up the full album, do it with caution, but if you’ve got some extra dollars lying around, definitely do it.