Cassandra Jenkins Makes a Giant Leap Forward With Career-Defining ‘My Light, My Destroyer’: Album Review

There’s lots of ear candy for indie-rock followers, from the aforementioned “Clams Gambling enterprise” to the single “Petco,” a musing on mankind’s enhancing distance from nature as she searches in a pet-store window at “2 doves involved real and filthy love” and the “sideways gaze of a reptile” as the electrical guitars develop the song’s intensity on each verse (and even insinuate a really “OK Computer” solo toward completion). Throughout, there are shades of everybody from Liz Phair, the Dog Breeders and PJ Harvey to Sharon Van Etten and Phoebe Bridgers (please note, the last-named 2 artists are recommendation factors and not influences), but the cd is musically multi-dimensional and includes appealing arrangements, consisting of one section that seems to include a violin, trombone and sax.

But her new cd, “My Light, My Destroyer,” is such a leap onward that it vaults her into an entire different organization. While her previous cds were much more low-key and solo, this finds her working with a cast of strong musicians– notably producer-guitarist Andrew Lappin– and expanding her musical combination significantly, from traditional indie rock to electronics-infused ballads, with splashes of string areas and even jazz in the music support, and her songwriting has advanced equally as dramatically.

The album begins carefully with the peaceful “Commitment,” however then the electric guitars come crunching in on “Clams Casino” and it appears like we’re off into indie-rock paradise– however then there’s one more pivot on “Delphinium Blue,” a gentle, atmospheric track with a nearly all-electronic support and a distant, sung counter-melody. The cd’s 10 tunes (and 3 intermissions) continue in that manner, moving efficiently between designs in a cohesive yet remarkably diverse set that’s joined by her apparent voice.

For the unaware, Cassandra Jenkins is a New York-based singer-songwriter with an excellent voice, specific articulation and a tone that at times recalls St. Vincent (although you ‘d hardly ever confuse both). Her celebrity began increasing rapidly with her 2021 hushed, downcast student album “A Review on Incredible Nature,” which combined individual, carefully honed lyrics with refined acoustic instruments and atmospherics.