Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

I don't know anything about Cassandra Jenkins - should I? - but I've been playing this on repeat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW8XoovSlsM

Nothing else I've since played by her seems quite as good but I could be playing the wrong things. Any pointers?

And wave if the album is all this good ...

“Hard Drive” is one of my favorite songs of the year, was expecting the album to be Kaputt 2.0 based on the sound palette of that one but the two other songs released so far aren’t really similar.

Oh, hadn't heard the third single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxE2Hr64pY

Weird - the first five shops I looked for this had sold out.

Saw her play live a couple times, good stuff.

This album is so good, I’ve had it on constant play all weekend. Just lovely. I went back and listened to the previous one, and it’s good and you can see where this came from, but the new one is a leap in all kinds of ways.

The rest of the (very short) album is more conventional than “Hard Drive,” but really the whole album flows as a unified work, with “Hard Drive” at the center and an amazing instrumental called “The Ramble” at the end. (A Central Park shout-out I assume, full of bird calls.)

It warrants a few plays. By which I mean, Hard Drive aside, it took a few plays to land with me.

The instrumentation here, the weave of sax and flute and guitar reverb, feels organic to the music but also unexpected. I mentioned Astral Weeks on the Indie thread, the other thing it puts me in mind of in some ways is Kate Bush’s Aerial — it doesn’t really sound like either of those, but it shares a kind of transcendental vibe.

Rolling INDIE 2021

here's the discussion from the indie thread, hadn't realise someone had made a thread already

really great album, totally sublime. it does have a similar sort of transcendental sunset vibe to aerial, i get the comparison. for me it's like someone let a folk album dissolve into the backing band from kaputt.

transcendental sunset is my new favorite subgenre.

This is good, it kind of reminds me of the first Eleanor Friedberger album - what with the saxophone, personal narratives, etc. (plus the mention of the Inn of the Seventh Ray).

Knowing next to nothing about Jenkins, I hadn't clocked the David Berman connection - presumably the "David" in "New Bikini" but possibly not.

Yeah, I read an interview with her where she talked about that. That is a reference to Berman, although it doesn't sound like they were exactly close — he had recruited her for his touring band, and she was really excited about it.

"Hard Drive" also makes me think of late '80s / early '90s Lou Reed – can't put my figure on specifically what song or album – but it's the sing-speak thing, plus the sax and other elements of the musical setting. Feels like a nice touchpoint for an NYC-based singer/songwriter...

Reminds me a bit of Mister Heartbreak-era Laurie Anderson, not miles away from '80s Lou.

I also thought a little of early Suzanne Vega (another New Yorker)

That dry, precise, self-aware diction

Yep. She's a downtown gal, basically.

the second half (last 4 tracks) of this is gorgeous

Yea this is an amazing late 80’s art pop album: Siberry, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Stina Nordenstam... drenched in something like Lanois reverb. Lovely.

Not to accuse it of plagarism or unoriginality, just pointing out the palette

I was checking out her earlier stuff; really liked the 2013 EP.

it's a little more restrained than most of those 80s artpop albums but i hear the connection to that lineage

i was completely unfamiliar with stina nordenstam before though and i'm listening to and she closed her eyes right now and it's great!

oh you are in for a treat, wait til you get to the follow-up Dynamite

Gosh, the final track of Jenkins's 2013 EP ("Birthday Song") is just gorgeous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4GbcmMoIDo

Reminds me a little of some of Nico Case's more languorous stuff. There's a beautiful moment in the middle where she sings "They waltz into... a room of darkness"; and the music shifts into to waltz time.

Her 2017 LP seems more... '70s style? I'm not connecting with that one as much.

I listened to those EPs last night too, I really like them! thank you for this thread, I found a new artist that I really like.

Haven't listened to the early EPs yet, I need to. I agree on the '17 album, it seemed nice but didn't grab me.

I also love the thematic through-line of this album, of loss and grief and recovery. It's there from literally the first line and recurs over and over in ways that seem both sad and hopeful. Very much a COVID album even if it's not specifically about COVID.

The 2018 EP ("Live in Foxen Canyon") is really nice... most of the songs are from the LP, but they breathe more in this setting.

love her voice

The penultimate track on the LP is a jam -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWffzwmK4Ww

“Hard Drive” sound palette is definitely 80’s but the half sung half spoken vocals remind me of something from the Morr label like Lali Puna. It’s killing me that the “one two three” reminds me strongly of another song which I have in the tip of my tongue and I can’t quite place it.

Interesting piece - turns out she has played w/Eleanor Friedberger: https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/cassandra-jenkins-an-overview-on-phenomenal-nature-interview/

And with Uncle Earl, too. Her family sounds interesting.

Is this widely available (in the UK) yet? CD seems to have been on order for an age ...

I think it’s come and gone (I’ve missed it too) - the place I had it on order from said they’ve been told “they’ll be front of the queue if there’s a re-press”. Al though the ba da bing bandcamp is still selling them if you’re prepared to stump up postage from the US.

Ah, yes. We may have ordered from the same shop!

I've ordered it twice - once from Sister Ray and once from Reflex in Newcastle. Haven't heard back from the latter but I would be surprised if it arrived now.

Actually it turns out the total cost of ordering it direct from the ba da bing Bandcamp, even with postage from the US, is roughly the same so I might give that a go.

Just received the CD copy of EP which I ordered via Bandcamp (with little handwritten note from her) - very happy to have it

It's showing as a "pre-order" at Norman Records now though still just "unavailable" at Sister Ray.

Did Ba Da Bing just under estimate the demand for this, I wonder?

I'm still at the "play at least once everyday" phase ... though, sadly, via Spotify. (I have the CD on order).

FYI I ordered the CD (to the UK) through the Ba Da Bing bandcamp and it arrived the other day - the order seems to have been sent from Melodic records (the label) in Manchester so maybe they still have a few?

Wish I’d known, there are a couple of things I want from Melodic and it would have been good to save on postage!

I think the PR is associated to Melodic.

This is very pretty music

Did anyone actually receive this from Sister Ray? Only just occurred to me to check and it is showing as "In Stock" there.

Anyhow. This remains my favourite album of 2021, so far. I don't have a good sense of what I want to say about it, though.

This is really great! FYI if you are in the US and still looking, I was able to get a CD copy from Midheaven.

Still my favorite album of 2021, too. Some of it ("Ambiguous Norway") reminds me a lot of Bon Iver's self-titled album, albeit more restrained.

certainly a contender for my favourite this year

Liking this - Live on KEXP at home - a lot (Have just skipped to the songs so far):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_ijQmHVPo

^I was watching this last nite; nice performances for sure.

(she also seems like a cool person, for whatever that's worth)

Yeah, yeah she does.

She's an interesting artist: has been recording a while, but has only released one full-length LP, plus various EPs and singles. It feels like she sort of focuses on "minor statements" instead of grand gestures, and records when inspiration strikes (maybe approaching music-making similar to how a visual artist works?).

Then again, I guess multiple EPs & singles are pretty common these days (on every level of the biz).

i've listened to this album while on sunset walks a dozen times since spring -- i'm not sure it would make sense to me in any other context now -- and it's easily my favorite new record in a long while

this year's album was her second full-length though?

I guess you’re right, it is being referred to as an album (I’ve been thinking of it as an EP; it doesn’t quite feel album-y to me).

Taken me a while to get round to this but damn it's beautiful. Perfect as the evenings draw in and the year wheels into autumn.

I've returned to this after a bit of a break and ... it's utterly magical.

I think the record this reminds me of most is Stina Nordenstam's Memories of a Color. It's warmer overall, but has a similar coherence of vision and emotional tone.

She’s got a new EP out that seems to contain demos and other stuff related to the last album.

Great alt lyric (from the demo):

Call me Michelangelo
I’m a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
My DNA looks pretty strange
Must be something in the water

Is that the real lyrics?

Yes!

I think I may actually prefer this to the album itself (...which still feels more like an EP to me, although it does squeak over the 30 min. mark). Obviously it's more "for fans," though, not a starting point.

Buying this tee immediately!

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0240/6114/9236/products/turtleshirt_720x.png?v=1634748579

The alternate version of the album is very good.

Aware of this?

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/cassandra-jenkins/the-ramble-morning-and-night-ep

I wasn't!

Is the alternate version actually available (in the UK)? Website I've ordered from says the CD was available in November ... but it hasn't arrived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkGu3F5gAX4

new track for a label comp

Did anyone hear The Ramble (Morning and Night)?

Strange, I've not even seen a link to it.

It's not even on her Bandcamp (I do see it at Rough Trade).

Ta. Yeah, I can see it at Rough Trade in the US and UK but there don't appear to be clips from it. I'm intrigued but would like to hear some of it before shelling out £20.

Weird - still haven't managed to hear it. It's seven quid off at Rough Trade (UK), by the way.

Eventually ordered this despite not having a working record player and Ba Da Bing were decent enough to send me a download when I explained this! Haven't really been in the space to absorb it properly despite having played "An Overview ..." and "(An Overview on) An Overview ..." a lot this week.

Just saw her live at End of the Road festival. I love this album - my favourite of the last year or two - & was a little worried that it wouldn't really translate (particularly to a festival stage) but, no, she was amazing, easily the best thing I saw. Captured that soundworld and she really finds the songs, if that makes sense, emotional, charismatic, cathartic - ok it was the Sunday of a hard weekend but I was near tears.

https://cassandrajenkins.bandcamp.com/album/chale-jaana-cassandra-jenkins-suhail-yusuf-khan-live

(Would be £16.35 postage to the UK, which I can't really justify.)

New track out according to a mailing list email (Can't actually get any of the links to work yet, mind).

Dawn of a new era😈 “Only One” is coming out tomorrow🌊
“Sea sick dawn come to tear off another page” pic.twitter.com/sZYefzaPjZ

— Cassandra Jenkins (@CassFreshUSA) April 15, 2024

i'm not seeing anything on streaming yet but there is this teaser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68aMst5uDKQ

video's out in 7 hours

really looking forward to new music from her

Hell yeah, same!

the single's lovely, she's gone full sophisti-pop

my light, my destroyer is out 12 july

01 Devotion
02 Clams Casino
03 Delphinium Blue
04 Shatner’s Theme
05 Aurora, IL
06 Betelgeuse
07 Omakase
08 Music??
09 Petco
10 Attente Téléphonique
11 Tape and Tissue
12 Only One
13 Hayley

press release cites: tom petty, annie lennox, neil young, the bends, pj harvey, the breeders, pj harvey, pavement, blackstar, and the blue nile

and that's really quite a track list lol

Oh yeah, this is nice. Up for this album for sure.

Just had an email about a Rough Trade exclusive - a bonus CD of extra tracks with the vinyl.

Actually, a 2-CD version as well.

new song is fantastic — she is great

Wow, this song is legit. I got kinda burned out on CJ, but I'm here for it

great news!

mostly i'm wondering how she's going to make all the sonic reference points fit together. "only one" is pure sophisti-pop but how is that going to fit with the 90s alt rock that's apparently a major influence elsewhere on the album?

"Destroyer" in the title of this very Kaputt-sounding* album is cute.

If you list Blue Nile and Annie Lennox as inspiration/RIYL for your album, I'm gonna think of that amazing "Downtown Lights" cover and immediately be on yr street team.

*The one song, anyway

I'd not heard that Annie Lennox cover before and it has just had me blubbering into my porridge.

Love the new Cassandra track too. Interested to see where this goes.

You've all clocked the UK/Europe tour? Tickets went on sale this morning at 1000 and I had tickets before 1001!

thank you - I had somehow missed any announcements but got tickets for London after that post

Oh, good. One of those events I didn't want to flag until I had tickets!

Been playing various sessions and live shows of hers on YouTube and her band line-ups seem ... restless! (In an endearing, creative way).

she's playing a free show here in Toronto next month, not sure if she'll be solo since it's free and all or if she'll be backed but either way, thrilled

Really good at Rough Trade last night - with (I am assured) local musicians rather than the regular band. Three new songs (Aurora, Petco, Clams Casino) dome solo+ electric guitar, then joined by the band for a mix of the first five from Overview of Phenomenal Nature plus Only One and Delphinium Blue. Apparently Delphinium Blue is being "released" today?

I've been in two minds about Only One for a couple of weeks but seeing it live made it make more sense to me, I couldn't tell you why.

Delphinium Blue is out, AOTY incoming

quite good! feels like it could be on last year's caroline polachek album

Delphinium Blue is good, kinda Lynchy, lightly trip-hoppy. I like the vibe.

these are going in one ear and out the other, but I enjoy them all the same

looking forward to the album!

I've really enjoyed "Delphinium Blue" tonight. Find it hard to imagine that I could like the album as much as "An Overview ..." which (for reasons I've never really fathomed) meant the world to me during the pandemic or thereabouts.

yup, I love An Overview more than almost any album from the last few years and it was under my skin in mysterious ways - but I'd also always thought 'this might be a real one-off of where I am and what she's made, but that is totally cool and I am purely grateful'. But I'm really liking this so far and am very open for this one.

Like I'm weirdly ready to be disappointed but she doesn't - as I found upthread -

Just saw her live at End of the Road festival. I love this album - my favourite of the last year or two - & was a little worried that it wouldn't really translate (particularly to a festival stage) but, no, she was amazing, easily the best thing I saw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgczzmHDe20

she's good at alt rock too but i kinda wonder how all this stylistic variety is going to fit together on the album

I have the same concern too but I have faith that it'll work

album is good but not as special as an overview was and there's nothing as stunning as "hard drive". manages to make all its stylistic variety hang together well enough but it doesn't quite have the same atmosphere

ofc nothing as good as “Hard Drive” tho “Omakase” comes close imo and atmospherically, it’s different from Overview but in a good way, I certainly didn’t want the same

I really like the album, it’s a whole sonic world.

I'm really enjoying this. Get the 'doesn't hang together' commentary (and I'm not mad on the interludes as yet) but think it will coalesce over time.

I feel like it coheres pretty well, some of those bits recede into the background a bit for me but they contribute to the overall sense of a single work that kind of ebbs and swells.

It's wonderful. Full and shimmering with so much amazing imagery and humor. Her songwriting continues to impress; I love "Clams Casino" and "Aurora, IL" especially.

There are moments on this album where I find myself wondering “is it even possible for music to sound more beautiful than this”

this is really great so far, I kept seeing it get bumped but I was thinking it was for the jazz singer

Probably the album I've been most excited (pre-release) about for a while. So loved the last one. Feels less coherent and/or there's more I want to skip. I say this as a geek who bought The Ramble 12".

This is really great and I'm actually glad it's a departure from Overview.

I love "Clams Casino" and "Aurora, IL" especially.

Yeah these are the two I keep coming back to, but "Delphinium Blue" is up there too - so gorgeous.

jesus christ, why did i wait so long to listen to cassandra jenkins

idk but I was wondering where you were ivy

still nothing as good as Hard Drive on here but overall I actually like the new one more than Overview

“aurora, il”……. perfection

xpost same here. “hard drive” is incredible but I find there are way more memorable tracks on this one

“Omakase” is gorgeous

This whole album is so beautiful. My immediate favourite is Delphinium Blue. I'm wondering if it contains a sample of Caroline Polachek's Crude Drawing Of An Angel or if it's just very similar.

big Polachek vibes about it for sure

It kind of has the same drums and the "turn up, stay on task" spoken word part is so similar to the "red light, camera one, camera two" bit from the Caroline Polachek song.

They're both gorgeous.

getting early Neil Young guitar sounds on some of these songs.

Love, love, love "Delphinium Blue". Would happily never hear "Petco" or "Clams Casino" again. Strangely, was playing the bonus disc last night and really enjoyed it.

What? "Clams Casino" is so good!

gone from 'hesitant but highlights are high' to 'I love this album and it is all I want to listen to'

feel like there's some magic in how clams & petco do fit with the rest of the soundworld

gone from 'hesitant but highlights are high' to 'I love this album and it is all I want to listen to'

"my lover, my light, my destroyer, my meteorite" pops into my head every now and then

The album hasn't made its way into my life in the same way as "An Overview ..." but a compilation for a couple of friends of "what I'm listening to now" ended up including "Delphinium Blue", "Only One", "Omakase" and "Hailey / Hayley (Only One)" (latter from the bonus disc).

hey hey hey
why'd you have to go and do me like that

to me this album is perfect

if you see my lip start quivering
don't mistake my breaking open
breaking opеn
for broken

otm

it's nice that on top of her writing shattering beautiful music she is a fantastic lyricist

Making a compilation for a friend (with the acknowledgement that I don't own anything before "An Overview ..."

Hailey / Hayley (Only One)
Ambiguous Norway
Tape and Tissue
Devotion
Crosshairs
New Bikini
American Spirits
Delphinium Blue
Only One
Hard Drive
Hailey (premix)
Aurora, IL
Michelangelo
Stardust
The Ramble
Shatner's Redux
Crosshairs (Interlude)
Attente Telephonique
Ambiguous Norway (instrumental)
Omakase

(It's not a Spotifiable compilation).

Looks like a really nice florist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt65NTaEgbY

Giddy for her Leeds show this week!

BBC session (with Lylo as backing band, I think):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024xt7

just saw her in Brighton. i have a dislike of people who just play the songs like they’re on the album. she wasn’t *at all* like that. all songs infused with something new and slightly magical. rendered me foolish with emotion. really wonderful.

even odd shouty “rugger” type behind me going YES! YAY! YES! couldn’t spoil it.

Saw her in Leeds and she was unexpectedly chatty and funny.

it was a really nice gig.

i think it might have edged melt banana and qujaku earlier in the year.

x-post to Dan.

Wasn't she utterly adored by *men of a certain age*? When she mentioned a goal of playing pool in the bar later, I did find myself wondering how many people were going to migrate to that room.

I'm sure it's at least in part informed by finances but I do like the changing bands across tours/TV sessions etc. Wasn't keen on Lylo from playing a few tracks on the internet (beforehand) but they were more likeable live and a decent fit for CJ. Might go back and replay them.

Well, I’m a man of a certain age too. Though I don’t think my pool skills would be a match for her.

There were some intriguing bits including attempts to include field recordings and the like (perhaps too loudly and I they had issues at one point) and I'm certain she was singing bits of "other songs" as outros.

Anyway, finally bought "Chale Jaana" on Bandcamp and that was sounding great last night.

Wow I had missed Chale Jaana, it's great!

this is a great album!

album of the year

One of my "sort of" albums of the year. I'd happily skip some tracks and/or swap out tracks from the Rough Trade bonus CD but the great tracks are fucking great.

Her track (with Bloomsday & Babehoven) on the Red Hot Org TRANSA comp is really, really nice. Same comp as Sade's Young Lion. Something for everyone - Bartees Strange (doing "Wolf Like Me"), Perfume Genius/Alan Sparhawk, Julien Baker & many others.

CJ,B&B: https://redhot.bandcamp.com/track/cassandra-jenkins-bloomsday-babehoven-aaron
46 track album: https://redhot.bandcamp.com/album/tra-a

Feels a bit weird that I missed this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5DcLea7Ir8

Obvs, you can skip the first two tracks.

Interesting tidbit in this note about her upcoming tour: I had suspected that "Aurora, IL" came from the COVID isolation that forced her to cancel her Big Ears performance — which I knew about only because I was bummed that she wouldn't be there — and indeed it is.

https://cassandrajenkins.bandcamp.com/community?sid=1718897&st=sm

I so love that KEXP version of Delphinium Blue.

https://francoisandtheatlasmountains.bandcamp.com/track/le-fil-feat-cassandra-jenkins-2

https://cassandrajenkins.bandcamp.com/album/my-light-my-massage-parlor

Shout if you see the vinyl for sale in the UK.

Surprised there are only 300 copies but then notice that the Ramble EP (of which there were 500 copies) is still available.

Any thoughts on My Light, My Massage Parlor?

It’s nice above average environmental music but needs her vocals to make it memorable.

I've enjoyed playing the whole thing without thinking any particular track is amazing. I think I enjoyed the slightly quirkier Rough Trade bonus EP more.

Obviously, this might change with more plays.