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About a year after Marnie Stern’s last solo record (2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia), the guitar heroine got tapped for a gig no one could have predicted: a high-profile cleanup hitter spot in Seth Meyers’ house band. In retrospect, her eight-year stint in the 8G Band makes perfect sense given the post-hardcore/punk-rock pedigree of her bandmates, which included Syd Butler and Seth Jabour (Les Savy Fav); Eli Janney (Girls Against Boys); and time keeper-turned-actor Fred Armisen (Trenchmouth). But let’s be honest: Stern’s dizzying music is in a manic league of its own, so much so that her late night TV licks never quite reflected her range as a restless singer-songwriter and straight-up shredder.
Enter The Comeback Kid, the long overdue return of the New York native’s first love: leaping into the void like her life depends on it. Or at the very least, her existential sense of self and overall happiness—something she appears to directly address on the tightly wound opening track “Plain Speak.” As Stern’s riffs careen across the splashy percussion of Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara—a fitting replacement for past foils like Zach Hill (Death Grips) and Kid Millions (Oneida)—she repeats a mantra we can all relate to: “I can’t keep on moving backwards.”
Considering how confident and slick The Comeback Kid is, the line serves as both a fitting mission statement and palpable modus operandi. At 12 songs and 29 minutes, Stern’s fifth album is arguably her most focused, leaving very little room either to breathe or fully absorb the sounds flying by our ears and eyes. That goes for everything from the hypnotic vocal hooks and wildly expressive call-and-response chords of “Earth Eater” to the prickly, borderline power ballad progressions of “Til It’s Over.”
Stern even puts her own personal stamp on Ennio Morricone with an infectious rendition of the chorus line composition “Il Girotondo Della Note” that sounds as if it were beamed from a bouncy castle on Mars. Which kinda explains the album’s comic book-ish cover; The Comeback Kid isn’t just a reminder of Stern’s roots and the revved-up records she’s yet to write. It’s a feral whirlwind of fearless riffs and ideas that holds absolutely nothing back in its pursuit of personal growth. Or as Stern says on “Nested,” “Get out the hero, and get onto the tracks/ Don’t let no one tell you different.”
