MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
While nothing is quite so charmingly ramshackle as anything found on Boat Songs, Manning Fireworks is still some of the best indie rock music around
'Please don’t laugh / Only half of what I said was a joke', sings MJ Lenderman on Joker Lips, a twinge of disappointment in his voice. This is the everyman, heralded for riffing about Jackass and Dan Marino over the twang and hiss of countrygaze. On Manning Fireworks, he’s not sure where that’s left him – does he have something serious to say?
Nothing here is as charmingly ramshackle as 2022's Boat Songs. Manning Fireworks is polished and lean, and it’s not unfair to wonder if the record is an attempt to capitalise on Lenderman’s sudden popularity. It’s front-loaded with his best work – funny songs about sad acts and disappointment. Wristwatch manages to avoid cringe in its attempt at skewering a very online guy, obsessed with tech but crushingly alone. When Lenderman is funny – and he frequently is – it’s less wrestling references and more caustic internal rhymes: 'Draining cum from hotel showers / Hoping for the hours to pass a little faster'. With a glut of pedal steel and banjo, the back half blurs into sameness; it’s still some of the best indie rock music around.
As closing track Bark At the Moon melts into a sustained static drone for several minutes, finally relenting to noise over the pressure to make a statement, something greater still is on the horizon.
Listen to: Wristwatch, She’s Leaving You, Rip Torn