Marnie Stern In Advance Of The Broken Arm by: Adam Davy Mon:09-Apr-07 Label: Kill Rock Stars Year: 2007 WB rating 82 out of 100

Every so often, an artist comes along and completely rewrites the rules of musical convention. Marnie Stern is one such artist, and on In Advance of the Broken Arm, the petite New Yorker somehow blends seemingly incongruous musical styles to achieve a dynamic synergy. Her growing reputation as a proficient guitarist is definitely well deserved, but it is her ability to craft complicated guitar acrobatics into unique yet powerful pop compositions that so impresses on this, her debut release.

In Advance of the Broken Arm is an orgasmic burst of musicianship, upon which Marnie Stern heralds her arrival on the pop landscape. Essentially an album of powerful and intelligent pop music, what makes Stern so amazing is her ability to craft these songs using overlaid tracks of intricate guitar solos that wouldn’t be out of place on a Black Sabbath record. It is primarily because of this sublime marriage of musical genres that Marnie Stern’s is quite possibly the most surprising act I have heard this year.

'Vibrational Match’ is, quite simply, one of the most effective album openers I have heard in a long time. Her explosive fretwork seems to scream at the listener, “Here I am motherfucker. You have no idea what you’re in for”. From this point forth, Stern maintains a level of frantic energy that rarely even looks like subsiding. I don’t think I can say enough about Stern’s musical talents. If you think you can pull out a few licks on your fender, then have a listen to this and prepare to be humbled. Marnie Stern is dangerously good, and the energy she creates as a result is raw and intense.
 
Controlled chaos is perhaps the best way to describe Stern’s approach to songwriting. Songs like ‘Grapefruit’ and ‘Precious Metal’ threaten to at any minute break down and lose all sense of coherence, but Stern always manages to bring the seemingly disparate sections of her compositions together in a majestic cacophony of disarming melody. Even comparatively down tempo tracks like ‘Every Single Line Means Something’ are driven by a sense of urgency that propels the listener ever onward. The end result is an album overflowing with music that is raucous, vibrant, and even a little anthemic. In short, it’s everything I wanted it to be and more.

In Advance of the Broken Arm is an immense album, and one that restores faith that music can be creative and truly original in its vision. Marnie Stern’s debut is the quintessence of exciting musicianship, and if you in any way consider yourself to be an aficionado of stimulating pop music, you owe it to yourself to go out and buy this album immediately.