other titles...
See also...
- Manning Fireworks
- Joker Lips
- Rudolph
- Wristwatch
- She's Leaving You
- Rip Torn
- You Don't Know The Shape I'm In
- On My Knees
- Bark At The Moon
MJ Lenderman (Wednesday)
Manning Fireworks
Anti
Replete with grainy lo-fi melodies and muscular six-string wrangling, the Asheville multi-instrumentalist kicked out a thrilling 4th solo album of moreish country-tinged indie rock, perfectly poised for fans of heroic guitartistry and artful songwriting.
Sung from the heart with more than a hint of midwestern emo twang, Lenderman’s 4th solo outing away from his day job in Wednesday (a band who have also gathered many a Resident to their cause over the last couple of years) is a refuge of tangled licks and rough country stylings that read like a pathway to his soul - through songs about watches and playing guitar hero, MJ spills his emotive ink pot across carefully painted vistas, drawing us into his evocative world with every strum.
If you’re here for the Wednesday connection, there are pedal steels and rugged riffs a-plenty, but you’ll find that the Lenderman flavour steers us away from his band’s melancholic tendencies, in favour of warmer, more soul-nourishing climes. It’s amazing that MJ manages to sing at all with his tongue lodged so firmly in his cheek, but he does, and he does so with an affable ease that feels as if he were performing off the cuff, just for our ears.