MJ Lenderman comes on slowly. It’s partly the drawl he developed from living for 25 years in Ashville, North Carolina, and his laid-back music style.
The singer-songwriter’s fourth solo album, Manning Fireworks, is emblematic of that style. Released Sept. 6, 2024, via Anti—and Epitaph Records, it begins with the title track, on which Lenderman spins an Applichan acoustic tune.
The album is largely Lenderman solo, playing almost every instrument, but he is joined by his Wednesday bandmates: singer Karly Hartzman, pedal steel guitarist Xandy Chelmis, and pianist Ethan Baechtold. They are also joined by multi-instrumentalist Landon George, clarinetist Shane McCord, and Adam McDaniel on bass clarinet. The whole orchestration is produced by Alex Farrar, who fills in on a bit of piano and drums.
Like his contributions to “Right Back To It” by Waxahatchee and “What Are We Gonna Do Now” by Indio De Souza, Lenderman makes his presence known through his assertive voice despite his chill persona.
The second track, “Joker Lips,” shows some of his personality shining through despite his hiding.
“Please don’t laugh only half of what I said was a joke
Every Catholic knows he could’ve been Pope,” he sings.
That gives him a little more confidence as he leads into the following lines:
“Kahlua shooter, DUI scooter
With a rolling start on the hill ’cause
This morning’s tryna kill me.”
Throughout the 9 songs that span 38 minutes and 54 seconds, I hear influences of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Dawes, PJ Harvey and Daniel Johnston.
He fitting refers to Dylan on “Rudolph.”
“How many roads must a man
Walk down ’til he learns
He’s just a jerk who flirts
With the clergy nurse ’til it burns.”
My years of living in Buffalo, New York have always made me think of the Queen City as my home away from home and his track “Wristwatch” was the first track on the album that perked up my ears:
“I got a beach home up in Buffalo
And a wristwatch that’s
A compass and a cell phone
And a wristwatch that
Tells me you’re all alone.”
There’s an undercurrent of sadness running throughout “Manning Fireworks.” On “Wristwatch,” he ends the song with, “And a wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own.”
On “She’s Leaving You,” Lenderman adopts the point of view of a woman who’s leaving someone:
“You can put your clothes back on
She’s leaving you
No time to apologize for the things you do
Go rent a Ferrari
And sing the blues
Believe that Clapton was the second coming.”
On “Rip Torn,” he weighs the cost of fame in a sad, slow country ballad referencing the actor and his role in “Men In Black.”
While most of the album leans hard in the country and folk territory, “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In,” strays more in the experimental with with some creative clarinet and the meta reference to the instrument:
“Clarinet singing its lonesome duck walk
What else can you say to help a friend with a broken heart?”
Lenderman takes a harder Young style a la “Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World” with “On My Knees.” The track has some of his most poetic lyrics from all of “Manning Fireworks”:
“Burdened by those nightmares
So you may find me awake
In the dark, I consider my ark
Out the window, the bushеs shake
And I’m speaking in tongues
Thosе hiccups don’t quit
I had a thought but I forgot
Like a train on a burning bridge.”
On the final track, “Bark At The Moon,” the last song on the video game “Guitar Hero,” Lenderman lets the evaporate halfway through into an experimental instrumental spanning 10 minutes.
On “Manning Fireworks,” MJ Lenderman lets his guitar greatness explode across nine tracks that cannot contain his creativity.
See MJ Lenderman with Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band Thursday, Oct. 24 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 25-27 at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York and Oct 30 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Get “Manning Fireworks” from MJ Lenderman, Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Tidal, Dezer and qobuz.
Favorite Tracks
Joker Lips
Rudoph
Wristwatch
She’s Leaving You
You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In
