The Comeback Kid

タッピングを駆使した奏法で縦横無尽に駆け回り、スピン誌の名ギタリスト100選にも選ばれたNY出身の実力者マーニー・スターン。タイトル通り10年振りの復帰作『THE COMEBACK KID』をリリース!

テクニカルな技を基に、エキセントリックで複雑骨折しまくりな展開とポップセンスを発揮している本作。"PLAIN SPEAK"の一気にリスナーを寄せる摩訶不思議イントロとグニャグニャと展開するフレーズの嵐、耳に突き刺さるような音からポップなハンズクラップとウネリでメジャー級の厚さを聴かせる"BELIEVING IS SEEING"と、アンダーグラウンドとメジャー両方の良い所を取り込んで、マーニー節に総仕上げ!

JOYFUL NOISE RECORDINGSに移籍して初となる本作、10年分のアイデアをたっぷり刻み込んだ怒涛の流れに乗っかりましょう。

In 2013, guitar virtuoso and experimental pop composer Marnie Stern used her fourth album, The Chronicles of Marnia, as a testing ground for some vulnerable questions. Though the songs were still high-spirited bursts of technical guitar shredding and firecracker math rock drums, the lyrics had repeating themes of exhaustion, maturity, and uncertainty about just how sustainable a life in music was. Shortly after that album, Sterns life in music took a turn away from releasing music of her own as she signed on as guitarist for Late Night with Seth Meyers house band and shifted her personal focus to parenting. Fifth album The Comeback Kid arrives roughly a decade after Sterns last record, feeling at once like no time has passed and like the years away have lifted some of the existential burden that was beginning to weigh her down. Drums on this album are handled by Arcade Fires Jeremy Gara, whose precise but explosive time-keeping gels with Sterns signature tapping style with all the force of her style-defining work with Hella/Death Grips drummer Zach Hill. Frantic tracks like "The Natural" and "Working Memory" carry the same overpowering excitement that drove the best of Sterns late-2000s output, and the compositional maturity she was getting into on The Chronicles of Marnia is reprised in the layered, multi-tonal guitar arrangement on "Believing Is Seeing." Her control of the guitar is still masterful, but theres more levity in the songwriting. "Forward" is built on sleazy hard rock riffs that feel almost casual compared to the full gale force of Sterns usual tapping workouts, and "Til Its Over" is as close to a straightforward pop song as anything shes ever created, complete with tension-and-release dynamics and a hooky chorus. Theres even a brief, playful Ennio Morricone cover. While The Comeback Kid is patently, unmistakably Marnie Stern, it also conveys a sense of joy and positivity that was absent on earlier efforts. Her music has always been beautifully chaotic, but it often lived in a tenuous balance between riding the rocky waves and staring into the abyss. While shes tearing up the fretboard just as effortlessly as ever, theres a marked feeling of newfound ease that flows through The Comeback Kid. The always unstable elements that make up Sterns sound are still potent and volatile, but gone is any dread or confusion that may have pushed her music forward in the past, replaced by a sense of triumph and euphoric self-acceptance. ~ Fred Thomas