MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Mark Jacob Lenderman is far from the first singer/songwriter to carve out a productive niche as a sideman, but few studio ringers have seemed as indispensable as the North Carolina-based artist. He’s put in a good half-decade as a full-time member of critically acclaimed bootgazers Wednesday, and more recently having provided guitar and backing vocals for the lion’s share of songs on Waxahatchee’s wonderful new album Tigers Blood. Neither of which should be all that surprising to anyone who’s heard the beautifully rustic twang of his first two solo albums, 2019’s MJ Lenderman and 2022’s Boat Songs, each comprising a set of unfussed and affecting slacker- and folk-rock that taps into a kind of poetic, everyday humanity through melodies that make simplicity feel astonishingly novel.
Manning Fireworks arrives at an opportune time, Lenderman’s fourth album putting the spotlight back on the young troubadour following two great recent albums on which he left his imprint. His first to be released through established indie imprint Anti-, it brings an upgrade in production to the lo-fi sound of his previous records, while finding his songwriting as strong as its ever sounded, steeped in a classic folk-rock sensibility as observed through a skewed, inventive lens.
The songs on Manning Fireworks are warm and lived in—the kind of melodies you might feel you’ve heard before but don’t quite remember where or when. Like his recent collaborator Katie Crutchfield or influences like Jason Molina, Lenderman has a particular knack for three-chord hooks that feel at once ageless and of the ages—fitting for a musician who’s ready to detach himself form social media. On a more literal level, there is one song here you probably have heard before, “Rudolph,” one of two Dylan-referencing singles that Lenderman released back in 2023. But even if you haven’t, it strikes a familiar chord, invoking red-nosed reindeer through Wowee Zowee-era Pavement, tongue twisting his way to playfully cynical profundities: “How many roads must a man walk down till he learns/He’s just a jerk who flirts with the clergy nurse till it burns.”
At a baseline, these songs are effortless and eminently replayable. At their best, Lenderman’s three chords are the truth, songs like “She’s Leaving You” harnessing a weary wisdom beyond his years and a rustic take on a classic sound that’s somewhere between Crazy Horse and Sparklehorse. There are only nine words in the first line of its soaring chorus—”It falls apart/We all got work to do“—but they speak volumes, resigned and comforting all at once. He makes the most of hitting a rickety high note on the soulfully ragged “On My Knees.” And standout “Wristwatch” simply showcases his knack for rich country rock arrangements—as you might expect from someone who’s likewise contributed them elsewhere—weeping pedal steel awash over scruffy, distorted chords, all of which makes satirical one-line jabs at dude culture like “I’ve got a houseboat docked at the Himbodome” sound weirdly natural.
It’s often in those peculiar, funny details where a good song becomes a great one, finding a ray of sunlight in moments of defeat and reveling in absurdities because sometimes that’s the best any of us can hope for. Closer “Bark at the Moon,” which disintegrates into a din of feedback and drones in its fourth minute, is ostensibly a break-up song, but taken line by line it’s rife with witticisms and clever musical puns. “Will you use your two cents, babe?/I could really use the change,” he sings in the first verse; “I’ve been up too late with Guitar Hero/Playing ‘Bark at the Moon’” he croons later in the song, capping it with a howl from “Werewolves of London.” Given moments like these, it seems fitting that Lenderman preceded Manning Fireworks with a live album, because for all of this record’s stunning in-studio work, there’s a freewheeling looseness about it that sometimes suggests the spontaneity of a great live performance. MJ Lenderman can write an excellent song—and he’ll play the hell out of it.
Label: Anti-
Year: 2024
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MJ Lenderman : Manning Fireworks
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