February 19 street date. Ambient folk meets chamber pop by NYC artist who as played in the bands of Eleanor Friedberger, Craig Finn, and Lola Kirke. "An Overview on Phenomenal Nature" honours flux, detail, and moments of intimacy. Cassandra Jenkins arrived at engineer Josh Kaufman's studio with ideas rather than full songs - nevertheless, they finished the album in a week. Jenkins' voice floats amid sensuous chamber pop arrangements and raw edged drums, ferrying the listener through impressionistic portraits of friends and strangers. Her lyrics unfold magical worlds, introducing one to a cast of characters, like a local fisherman, a psychic at a birthday party, and a driving instructor of a spiritual bent.
February 19 street date. Ambient folk meets chamber pop by NYC artist who as played in the bands of Eleanor Friedberger, Craig Finn, and Lola Kirke. "An Overview on Phenomenal Nature" honours flux, detail, and moments of intimacy. Cassandra Jenkins arrived at engineer Josh Kaufman's studio with ideas rather than full songs - nevertheless, they finished the album in a week. Jenkins' voice floats amid sensuous chamber pop arrangements and raw edged drums, ferrying the listener through impressionistic portraits of friends and strangers. Her lyrics unfold magical worlds, introducing one to a cast of characters, like a local fisherman, a psychic at a birthday party, and a driving instructor of a spiritual bent.
July 12 street date. Cassandra Jenkins is quite simply one of the best songwriter-storytellers currently making music. Hers is a specific and singular corner of the Great American Songwriters, artists like David Berman, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy, and Sufjan Stevens. They're artists connected by a sense of immediacy, not just in the writing - which is precise, evocative, brutal at times, pitch-back funny right when you need it - but by their delivery, by the way they sing with an immersive, total belief that carries you through their songs. These are the artists and songs that sneak up and really live with us forever, and on "My Light, My Destroyer", Jenkins joins their ranks. What is most remarkable about "My Light, My Destroyer" is it captures an artist at an exciting leap in her evolution. So much about the album feels of-a-kind with its predecessors; field recordings and found sound permeate, narrative songwriting crashes into heady, swirling compositions. Jenkins sings with what can only be described as a power-whisper (think Sufjan Stevens, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins, or YHF-era Tweedy), her vocals up close and intimate but subtly confrontational. But it all feels bigger here, more finely honed, bolder and richer than her previous work and than her peers.
July 12 street date. Cassandra Jenkins is quite simply one of the best songwriter-storytellers currently making music. Hers is a specific and singular corner of the Great American Songwriters, artists like David Berman, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy, and Sufjan Stevens. They're artists connected by a sense of immediacy, not just in the writing - which is precise, evocative, brutal at times, pitch-back funny right when you need it - but by their delivery, by the way they sing with an immersive, total belief that carries you through their songs. These are the artists and songs that sneak up and really live with us forever, and on "My Light, My Destroyer", Jenkins joins their ranks. What is most remarkable about "My Light, My Destroyer" is it captures an artist at an exciting leap in her evolution. So much about the album feels of-a-kind with its predecessors; field recordings and found sound permeate, narrative songwriting crashes into heady, swirling compositions. Jenkins sings with what can only be described as a power-whisper (think Sufjan Stevens, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins, or YHF-era Tweedy), her vocals up close and intimate but subtly confrontational. But it all feels bigger here, more finely honed, bolder and richer than her previous work and than her peers.
July 12 street date. Cassandra Jenkins is quite simply one of the best songwriter-storytellers currently making music. Hers is a specific and singular corner of the Great American Songwriters, artists like David Berman, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy, and Sufjan Stevens. They're artists connected by a sense of immediacy, not just in the writing - which is precise, evocative, brutal at times, pitch-back funny right when you need it - but by their delivery, by the way they sing with an immersive, total belief that carries you through their songs. These are the artists and songs that sneak up and really live with us forever, and on "My Light, My Destroyer", Jenkins joins their ranks. What is most remarkable about "My Light, My Destroyer" is it captures an artist at an exciting leap in her evolution. So much about the album feels of-a-kind with its predecessors; field recordings and found sound permeate, narrative songwriting crashes into heady, swirling compositions. Jenkins sings with what can only be described as a power-whisper (think Sufjan Stevens, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins, or YHF-era Tweedy), her vocals up close and intimate but subtly confrontational. But it all feels bigger here, more finely honed, bolder and richer than her previous work and than her peers.