The Heartbroken Jester’s Dilemma: MJ Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks

“So you say I’ve got a funny face,” croons MJ Lenderman as harsh guitars give way to softer melodies at the start of “Wristwatch” (2024). I must say, it’s true. His unusual features were one of the first things I noticed about him, actually, as he took the stage at Amherst’s Green River Festival this past summer and proceeded to cement his spot on my playlists forever. His sunglasses seem too big for his face, looking more like goggles. He makes uneasy faces at the crowd as he sings crass lines like “is it the quiet hiss of a midnight piss? / Or a river turned to creek?” in “On My Knees” (2024). He knows the audience must agree, so he bites back: “It makes me money.”

Lenderman’s 2024 was, frankly, non-stop. Following the newfound success of his band Wednesday’s 2023 record Rat Saw God, multiple features on Waxahatchee’s Tiger’s Blood (2024), an extremely busy touring schedule, and the release of his fourth solo record, Manning Fireworks (2024) only further cemented him as a slacker-rock icon. It wasn’t all great, though. The intensity of his touring schedule, among other things, led to his breakup with fellow Wednesday bandmate and frontwoman Karly Hartzman. He kept performing and creating, trying to make something uplifting even as his six-year relationship burned to the ground. As he sings on the title track, he’s “standing close to the pyre, manning fireworks.”

Despite the ending of their romantic relationship, Hartzman is featured on the album, providing a soft, more alto voice that blends perfectly with Lenderman’s tenor tones. The significance of these features is not lost on him: Hartzman’s most significant contribution is on “She’s Leaving You,” where she contributes  backup vocals on the chorus and ends as its only vocalist. At the end of the relationship, Hartzman is continuing to shine without him. He’s still stuck.

When not discussing his relationship with Hartzman, the lyricism of Manning Fireworks draws heavily on his Catholic upbringing, joking about religion like a priest giving a homily, drunk off the blood of Christ. Setup: “You’ve opened the Bible in a public place.” Punchline: “You’ve opened the Bible to the very first page.” His reflections on religion reveal a deep sincerity, too. In the chorus of “Rudolph,” Lenderman confesses simply, “I wouldn’t be in the seminary if I could be with you.” In the wake of his relationship’s end, he finds himself returning to his Catholic roots. 

Additionally, the album examines themes of masculinity, painting playful portraits of toxic, performative men while admitting his own flaws. “Go rent a Ferrari / And sing the blues,” Lenderman sings to himself in “She’s Leaving You,” followed by “pretend that Clapton was the second-coming.” On “Wristwatch,” he brags of having “a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome.” His lyricism is at times hilarious, at other times heartbreaking, and, at most times, both. “If you tap on the glass, the sharks might look at you,” he sings on the mellow folk-ballad “Rip Torn.” “You’re damned if they don’t and you’re damned if they do.” 

I have never really considered MJ Lenderman’s vocals to be stellar: they sound more like a conversation with a friend or a casual open-mic comedy set. Lenderman’s singing stands out most when harmonizing with a lead singer (see Waxahatchee’s brilliant “Right Back to It”). In this album, however, his abilities as a lead vocalist are given time to shine. He flawlessly switches between his louder chest voice to a whistling soprano for the chorus of “On My Knees.” The twang in his voice soothes listeners on slower tracks like “Rip Torn.” His voice, just as on his work with Wednesday, blends beautifully with that of Karly Hartzman, whose soft harmonic vocals quietly inject more beauty into the messy yet controlled songwriting for which Lenderman is known. 

The soundscape of Manning Fireworks is not revolutionary, especially if you’ve heard the work of his contemporaries and collaborators, like Waxahatchee and Wednesday, or older bands like Silver Jews and Pavement. It shines instead by perfecting the sounds of Southern slacker rock. No song goes without a pedal-steel guitar, hints of banjo, or hits of a tambourine. Lenderman and his band—referred to live as MJ Lenderman and the Wind—produce both soaring rock songs (“Rudolph,” “On My Knees,” “She’s Leaving You”) and twang-filled softer tracks (“Manning Fireworks,” “Joker Lips,” “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In”) with ease. Just as he does lyrically, Lenderman enjoys subverting musical expectations in ways that keep you second-guessing his next move. “Rip Torn”—the sixth track on the album—opens with a fiddle solo, which eventually is joined by the traditional rock instruments of its predecessors. Songs will switch up their forms, swapping verses for instrumental solos or switching main vocalists like in “She’s Leaving You.” However, he saves his biggest surprise for the end in the closing track “Bark at the Moon.” As the guitar solo ends, the final chord resolves the track, but refuses to fade out, instead beginning a seven-minute drone section that ends the album. As it becomes clear that the band isn’t leaving any time soon, one could imagine Lenderman laughing to himself in the studio before employing the final trick up his sleeve.

MJ Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks has all the hallmarks of a great summer blockbuster: each lyric finds the midpoint between poignance and punchline, the highs are soaring, and the emotional beats hit. Lenderman gives the performance of a comedic-turned-dramatic actor, à la Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), masterfully undercutting his punchlines with comedy before the sorrow lingers for too long. MJ Lenderman’s beautiful, hilarious, and poignant Manning Fireworks proves that his meteoric rise in fame these past years was not just well-deserved, but inevitable. He is able to tackle his feelings on religion, masculinity, and the lonely aftermath of his breakup through the beautifully mundane, while still having plenty of fun. “Everybody’s walking in twos leaving Noah’s Ark,” he sings, “it’s a Sunday at the waterpark.”

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Maxine Messina is a freshman in the College, planning to study Psychology and Music. Every Catholic knows she could've been Pope.