MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

The Asheville singer-songwriter’s outstanding fourth album is loaded with zingers and losers. It’s witty and sincere, the mark of a songwriter finding his voice. – Pitchfork, Best New Music (8.7) 

Manning Fireworks is one of the best albums of the year. If this summer was defined by Charli XCX’s hedonistic Brat, then we’re entering Manning Fireworks fall: the aftermath of the relentless partying, the hangovers that give everything a sad yet sublime texture, the flood of blurry memories from the night before. Manning Fireworks is a masterpiece about quotidian misery that’s as playful and comforting as a best friend. – Stereogum

“On ‘She’s Leaving You,’ Lenderman has never made failure sound so good…Cap it off with a coarse, Crazy Horse–esque guitar solo and you’ve got a winner of a song.” — Vulture, The Best Songs of 2024 (So Far)

“Lenderman’s off-kilter observations are enveloped in a haze of melancholy, but there’s a comforting, wool-blanket warmth to the tone of his guitar and the broken croak of his voice.” — New York Times

MJ Lenderman — the North Carolina-based singer, songwriter, and musician — has released the final taste from his upcoming new album, Manning Fireworks, out this Friday via ANTI-, with the instantly addictive new single “Wristwatch.” As praised by the New Yorker, “Wristwatch” is “one of the best songs from Manning Fireworks, [Lenderman] imbues clever lyrics with real, modern heartache.” In addition, Lenderman and his live band The Wind have announced a 2025 West Coast tour. Tickets are on sale Friday, Sept. 6th and will be available here.

Following in the footsteps of the “slacker anthem of the summer” (The FADER) “She’s Leaving You” and the “Manning Fireworks thesis statement” (UPROXX) “Joker Lips,” “Wristwatch” sees Lenderman again provide us with a world-weary story that straddles the line between humor and sadness, as he sings of someone that’s too proud of what they have to be humble about what they’ve forsaken. “I got a beach home up in Buffalo / And a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cell phone,” Lenderman deadpans, before eventually realizing it’s just “a wristwatch that tells me / I’m on my own.”

Recorded at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios and co-produced with frequent collaborator Alex Farrar, Manning Fireworks is an instant classic of an LP and a remarkable development in Lenderman’s story as an incisive singer songwriter, whose propensity for humor always points to some uneasy, disorienting darkness. The punchlines from his previous albums are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitar solos that have made him a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an emerging guitar hero. Executed with a precision and care that make his songs feel like short films, Lenderman simply offers everyday anxieties and enthusiasms in uncanny ways.

NOTE: AAA single is “She’s Leaving You”