My Light, My Destroyer

Description

Cassandra Jenkins is simply one of the best singer-songwriters today. She is among the great American songwriters, alongside artists like David Berman, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy, and Sufjan Stevens. These are artists connected by a sense of immediacy, not only in their writing — which is precise, evocative, sometimes brutal, and delightfully funny — but also in their interpretation, in the way they sing with total and immersive conviction that sweeps you into their songs. These are the artists and songs that sneak in and live with us forever, and on My Light, My Destroyer, Cassandra joins their ranks. What is most remarkable about this new album is that it captures an artist at an exciting moment in her evolution. Many elements of the record are reminiscent of her predecessors; field recordings and found sounds are omnipresent, narrative writing crashes into intoxicating and swirling compositions. She sings with a power-whisper (think Sufjan Stevens, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins, or Tweedy from the YHF era), her vocals are close and intimate yet subtly conflicted. But everything feels bigger here, more refined, bolder, and richer than her previous work and that of her peers.