MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:54 minutes | 763 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

In an MJ Lenderman song, the extraordinary is always elbowing its way into the mundane. His 2022 breakthrough album, Boat Songs, thrived on these situations. One minute someone was clinically depressed on the Six Flags log flume, the next they were locked in a spat about a “dumb hat” outside a butcher shop. “Being really sad or upset while wearing a costume,” he told Pitchfork last year, “that’s funny.” Over the last couple of years—as he signed with Anti- and remained a guitarist and songwriter in the great Southern indie rock band Wednesday, alongside his now ex-partner Karly Hartzman—Lenderman became a cult folk hero for people willing to talk about their feelings if they could couch it in a joke about Jackass.MJ Lenderman, also known as Jake Lenderman from the North Carolina-based Wednesday, has attracted significant attention in the lead-up to his latest solo album, Manning Fireworks. Since the release of Boat Songs in 2022, Lenderman has demonstrated a quirky depth and haunting beauty, leading to comparisons with artists such as Neil Young and Jason Molina. His recent writing credits on labelmate Waxahatchee’s Tiger’s Blood have further heightened interest in his work, and Manning Fireworks may be the moment where Lenderman goes from underdog to favorite son.

Opening with the title track, Lenderman’s voice is laid bare from the start, eventually backed up with a slow moving train of melancholic violin and pedal steel. It’s very reminiscent of the Magnolia Electric Co. and the care and majesty of early My Morning Jacket. When “Rip Torn” tackles alcohol as a method of coping with social anxiety—”you need to drink to drink some water/ it’ll kill the need to puke/ you need to learn how to behave in groups”—it packs the emotional heft and execution of some of Jason Isbell’s greatest moments. The album closes with “Bark at the Moon,” which flies closest to his previous work, using Crazy Horse as a stylistic jumping-off point until closing out with a wild seven-minute feedback freak out.

The weird references to wrestling and cartoons, pop culture and sports heroes that were so prevalent on Boat Songs aren’t completely gone but are largely scrubbed away—most likely a result of levelling-up in maturity. Manning Fireworks is undoubtedly an impressive effort that doesn’t quite pack the same punch of Boat Songs or the emotional wallop of Lenderman’s live record but is a welcome addition to the canon for old fans and will also win over new ones. And at the ripe age of 25, Lenderman is going to attract a whole lot more of them. – Fred Pessaro

Tracklist:

1-01. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (02:59)
1-02. MJ Lenderman – Joker Lips (03:01)
1-03. MJ Lenderman – Rudolph (03:31)
1-04. MJ Lenderman – Wristwatch (03:42)
1-05. MJ Lenderman – She’s Leaving You (04:38)
1-06. MJ Lenderman – Rip Torn (03:32)
1-07. MJ Lenderman – You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In (03:36)
1-08. MJ Lenderman – On My Knees (03:52)
1-09. MJ Lenderman – Bark At The Moon (10:00)

Download from FileJoker: