Manning Fireworks, by M.J. Lenderman

Mark Jacob Lenderman landscaped his way through the pandemic. The Asheville native, alongside his then-girlfriend and bandmate, found himself with an enforced career pause so started working on the land. In “Manning Fireworks”, his fourth and best album to date, he demonstrates his inspiration with his trademark wry writing style, well suited to thumbnail character studies. The songs hilariously and brilliantly reposition concepts of Americana with a busload of bathos. It burns quick — nine songs of brash and unbridled alt rock — and its progressively scuzzy licks wrap themselves around whatever material the artist found at the bar at closing time. Tracks like Joker Lips and Rip Torn feel like an Indian summer for sad boys: Lenderman draws the mystical from the mundane. Bark At the Moon brings us to a worthy send off – an outstandingly self-deprecating closer. Manning Fireworks detonates at will, firing on all cylinders: a jeremiad of insurgency for the smalltown singleton.