We are revisiting some of our favourite records of 2023

“When you’re ice / Don’t bow down / When you’re tired / Don’t back down,” she sings on the album single, “Believing Is Seeing.” “What if I add this, and this / this and this!” she shouts, as more and more incendiary guitars are added to the mix. Like the cover of the album, her guitar is on fire. And this album is an exercise in addition, adding to our perhaps boring or torturous existences, something fully cathartic and even playful.

The Comeback Kid, a cheeky title, that might refer to her return to the underground music scene after spending her time on national television, is a promise that she fully delivers on. This is one of my favorite albums of the year, so far. You can’t understand nearly anything she sings or screams, but her voice, like her guitar, is bottled lightning. “Get It Good” is one of the titles of her songs, however, and she does just that.

On another of her albums, she has a title for a song called, “Female Guitar Players Are The New Black,” and while a guitar player is a guitar player is a guitar player, Marnie represents her gender with guitar as impressive or more so than any other guitar players out there right now. And it’s good to see the representation.

It’s a quick listen, 12 songs at thirty minutes, something fit for the punk-influenced music that she composes and performs. And it’s good that we have this music on record to replay during our iciest times, to fan the flame of inspiration and meaningful activity. It reminds me of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, a punky female-led band, but also adds a satisfying mathiness to the mix. It’s punk, it’s post-punk, it’s about as much energy as you need or could stand, for the duration of the record.

Order The Comeback Lid by Marnie Stern Here