A Song For Friday: Cassandra Jenkins

Emotional echoes of 2024's best album by the great singer, songwriter, and sonic adventurer. Also: Marissa Nadler, Professor Girlfriend, and Translations.

This week’s post is abbreviated due to a major family transition happening this week: my daughter's move to graduate school. Wish her luck in this new phase of her life!

What a gift Cassandra Jenkins gave us last year, when she released My Light, My Destroyer, which became my #1 album of 2024. And now she’s delivered My Light, My Massage Parlor, a supplemental meditation on the album, filled with expansive takes on some of its melodies, highlighted by the lavish pianism of Michael Coleman, and other emotional echoes through Jenkins’ signature use of field recordings and spoken word.

Revel in Wormhold Music and enjoy the musical richness, humor, consolation, and compassion of one of today’s great artists.

This kind of release is now a tradition for Jenkins, who gave us (An Overview On) An Overview On Phenomenal Nature, as a supplement to An Overview On Phenomenal Nature, her brilliant 2021 album, which also hit my Top 25. Get to all of it, if you haven’t already. Your life will be immeasurably enriched.

Listen to most of the songs for Friday here or below.

Also Out This Week

Marissa Nadler - New Radiations For her first album of new material since 2021’s The Path Of The Clouds, Nadler has given us an even lusher collection of haunting songs. I was surprised to find myself thinking of Marc Bolan songs like Diamond Meadows when listening to Light Years and some other songs - but after a few hearings it made perfect sense.

R.J.F. - Cleaning Out The Empty Administration Building For the bass sound alone - liquid, with a uniquely weighted quality - this latest album from Ross J. Farrar would be a treasure. But there is so much more here on this hypnotic portfolio of songs and sounds.

Professor Girlfriend - My Mother In Love: The Summer Sessions Art song meets art rock on this sharp and evocative album composed by Anna Weesner for her, Charles Mueller (guitar, bass, production), and Tak Ensemble’s Charlotte Mundy (vocals) to realize. Joining them is a raft of marvelous musicians, including Tak’s Laura Cocks (flute), Marina Kifferstein (violin), and Madison Greenstone (clarinets). One musician I hadn’t heard of before is Cameron LeCrone, whose emotionally attuned and dramatic drums punctuate many of the songs on this album. But Mundy’s voice is front and center and it’s a complete joy to hear her in this context.

Translations - HIK Organist Arngerður María Árnadóttir and violinist Una Sveinbjarnardóttir have collaborated on a series of improvisation-derived compositions, that are dark, rich, and characteristically Icelandic. Skúli Sverrisson and Davið Jónsson contribute bass and piano on several tracks, giving the album an even more dimensional and genre-free sound.

The graphic above is based on a photo by Lucie Murphy.