Graphics by Sarah Tarlin
By Fenton Wright, Staff Writer
A well full of raw emotion is exactly what MJ Lenderman’s song on Manning Fireworks, “She’s Leaving You,” feels like. It leaves the listener feeling like they have a new way to express their sadness or frustration with a relationship that didn’t quite work out like you wanted it to. It also serves as a reminder for us to pick ourselves back up and push on. In the best way possible, the song sounds like something that would come on the radio as you are driving away from a party late in the night.
Dust Yourself Off
The lyrics in “She’s Leaving You” feels like a combination of so many different emotions. Whether it be sadness, anger, frustration, or numbness, Lenderman has us feel, through his raw, seemingly unproduced style, the longing of an ex-lover. The entire song feels like a reminder that despite those emotions, we have to get back to work. With lines like, “It falls apart, we all got work to do,” Lenderman reminds us to keep moving forward with our lives. Relationships come and go, but that does not mean that the whole world has to stop. We have to make some effort to try again no matter how much it hurts.
In telling us to continue on, he also mentions destructive ways of coping with that grief. In lines like “Go rent a Ferrari and sing the blues,” he suggests that, even if only for a minute, we should let ourselves be taken over by that loss, but then goes right into saying that we have to move on. The emotion that Lenderman puts into his voice on each word adds to the feeling of heartbreak and elevates each lyric to a level of pure unfiltered emotion.
She Might be LeavingYou, But This Music Video Is Not
On top of the lyrics and emotion being put into this song being on a different level, the music video brings all of those elements together. Many of the themes in the song are subliminally mentioned in the video, and makes for a fun watch, with it being a reminder of simpler moments in life and a more juvenile way of seeing things that makes us feel like it is ok to be vulnerable and to not always trap ourselves in moments of feeling like everything has gone wrong.
The music video opens in a talent show, and guess who is up next, MJ Lenderman! Him and his band take the stage, and the crowd goes completely mild. Everyone aside from the people onstage hate him. Throughout the video, we get to see other acts at the show, with all of them receiving applause, but Lenderman gets absolutely no crowd reaction until all the other acts take over his song. The video feels like a release of pent up emotion, the same way that the song does. Add to the fact that it takes place in a talent show, it adds even more to the rawness of Lenderman’s emotion and lyrics.
Raw, Uncut Indie
The way in which Lenderman is able to make it sound as if he has done all of his songs in one take, is one of his most defining features. Being able to sound as if you deliberately mean each word that you sing is something that not a lot of musicians are able to do. Lenderman makes every song sound like it has been done in one, effortless take. It adds to the emotion that each of his songs have. With an almost indie-folk feel to him, Lenderman takes us all down an emotional journey with each song that he releases.
What’s Next?
After the success of his album Manning Fireworks, Lenderman has been on an absolute rocket through the music industry. As of right now he is on tour with his band Wednesday and he himself is on a solo tour. When his next song is coming out, no one really knows, but what is for sure is that the success of Manning Fireworks is not something that will be forgotten anytime soon!
