A Song For Friday: Cassandra Jenkins

An extraordinary follow up to one of the best albums of 2021

I should have been more prepared. But I wasn’t on the press list for My Light, My Destroyer, the third album from singer, songwriter, and profound thinker Cassandra Jenkins. Since her last album, An Overview Of Phenomenal Nature, was on my Best Of 2021, I should have advocated for an advance copy. Instead, I enjoyed the singles she released in the run-up to release day and eagerly anticipated what was to come.

I wasn’t prepared. As good as An Overview was - and it featured Hard Drive, one of the greatest songs of all time - the new album is even better. Ranging from Devotion, which opens the collection in folk mode, with an upright bass sound curated from Richard Davis’ stellar work on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, Jenkins declaring, “I think you've mistaken/My desperation/For devotion” to the synth and string-laden soft rock of Omakase, with its fatalistic chorus: “My lover/My light/My destroyer/My meteorite,” the variety is exceptional.

There are also several abstract pieces, one of her trademarks, built up out of field recordings and spoken word, including the memorable conversation of Betelguese, which features Jenkins and her mom looking at the stars. I love the exchange that ends the piece:

Jenkins’ Mom: I just read that there was an asteroid
The size of the skyscraper
That, on Saturday night,
Went between the Moon and the Earth
Jenkins: Did we see it?
Somebody did

That “Somebody did” speaks volumes about where Jenkins gets her wit and wisdom.

To focus on just one song, let’s go with the top-down rocker, Clams Casino, which has meshing guitars and a driving rhythm nobly trying to keep their heads up as Jenkins sings: “I don’t want to laugh alone anymore.” The guitar work throughout is phenomenal, as is the spaced-out bridge that leads into the main solo. Jenkins has some great friends so it could be Josh Kaufman, Elle Kempner (Palehound), or Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) doing the honors. My money is on Kaufman, who often employs an overdriven tube-based sound that just rips. [Note: I was wrong on all counts - the artist herself has informed me that it’s Adam Brisbin, a new name I will not soon forget!]

Throughout, Jenkins sings with close-miked restraint, never laying her velvety voice on too thick, and ever the master of the conversational aside. Check out what she does in the second verse, which is reminiscent of Dylan’s Highlands:

No one's home at the hotel bar
I've been out looking for a silver lining
Just found a stray hair in the bedding
Maybe I'll drive out to the ocean
I heard someone order the Clams Casino
I said, "Hey, what's that?"
They said, "I don't know"
Her voice echoes in my head

And now Jenkins's voice is echoing in my head and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future, along with all the marvelous sounds she and producer, engineer, and mixer Andrew Lappin (L’Rain, Slauson Malone 1) blended to make this all-timer of an album.

Did I just have the privilege of introducing you to the Cassandra Jenkins universe? Or were you already a fan? Tell me all about it in the comments.

From the archives:
Celebrating 2021: New Year, New Music