CD review: Marnie Stern - In Advance of the Broken Arm

You know how a band sounds when you unwittingly play a 33 rpm record on the 45 setting? Well apparently Marnie Stern always sounds like that. Stern, a New York native who has drawn accolades for her ferocious guitar skills, brings the same breakneck pace and melting pot diversity of her hometown into the high-speed complexity found on the 13 tracks composing her debut album. Too bad she didn’t leave out her tuneless voice, the one ingredient that throws off the entire recipe. Where do I begin? Female chipmunk on speed; the Powerpuff Girls after too many Red Bulls; that midget psychic from “Poltergeist” who keeps shouting into the light before declaring “This house is clean.” Stern’s little girl shrillness, spouting seeming nursery rhymes rather than singing, belies the big sound of her guitar shred. No doubt she’s a downright vibrant addition to the guitar world; if this album was purely instrumental, bring on thy rock crown. And the song arrangements, a collaboration between Stern and Hella’s Zach Hill, are admirable in their originality. Each track sounds like at least four songs kneaded into one proggy, wonderfully disjointed cacophony. But it takes no further than the second cut “Grapefruit” to realize that this album would perfectly complement an afternoon of running from bees. It’s just not listenable.