MJ Lenderman has released a sardonic new single called ‘Wristwatch’ – take a listen to it down below.
The Wednesday guitarist is due to release his fourth solo album ‘Manning Fireworks’ tomorrow (June 6) via ANTI-, and has shared the final teaser from the record called ‘Wristwatch’. So far, Lenderman has released the singles ‘Rudolph’, ‘She’s Leaving You‘ and ‘Joker Lips‘ in anticipation of the album.
‘Wristwatch’, meanwhile, sees Lenderman address someone who’s told him he has a “funny face” and has “wasted my life away”: “Well / I got a beach home up in Buffalo / And a wristwatch that’s / A compass and a cell phone / And a wristwatch that / Tells me you’re all alone”.
Despite this, the song ends with Lenderman admitting he would “still take your Amazing Grace” and that he has “a wristwatch that tells me / I’m on my own”.
Take a listen to ‘Wristwatch’ down below:
NME spoke to Lenderman about his upcoming record in August, with the musician telling us about witnessing the positive reaction to 2022’s ‘Boat Songs’. “Just seeing a lot of good press,” he said, “it’s like: ‘There’s no way everybody really thinks it’s that good.’ Maybe I didn’t believe it was that good, or something. So it was just confusing.
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“I think there’s a danger in believing your own myth, too. I just chose to not interact with it as much as possible.”
In our four-star review of the record, NME praised ‘Wristwatch’ as a highlight: “the narrator insists he hasn’t wasted his life, isn’t all alone, by way of boasting about his beach home in Buffalo and his cool-guy smart-watch. The guitar on this song is gruff and in-your-face, but behind it, like an echo, sits the doleful pedal steel. Right after he delivers his bravado-laden line about the wristwatch “that’s a compass and a cell phone,” the pedal steel cries out; he’s given away.
“‘Manning Fireworks’ is an album that aches for its cast of freaks and losers, and its success in walking that line is a sign of MJ Lenderman’s richly developing voice.”
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