An intriguing record - makes me want to keep listening to it. Stern's little-girl yowls are possibly an acquired taste, as is the way that they cut in and out and over the top of her zig-zaggy and often ferocious guitar lines in the ten miniature epics making up The Chronicles of Marnia. But tart-sweet, ecstatically, vividly spiralling (say on "Still Moving" and the title track), stop-start propulsive ("Noonan", "Proof of Life"), sometimes fractured indie-lullaby-y ("East Side Glory"), occasionally suggesting a subliminal Life Without Buildings influence ("Immortals") and at other times nailing a punkily melodic indie-rock reminiscent of the great Pretty Girls Make Graves (especially on closer "Hell Yes"), it strikes a chord with me.
