Cassandra Jenkins Album Reviews

New York’s Cassandra Jenkins comes from a musical family. Her parents worked on cruise ships as musicians, and her brother is in the band Morningsiders.

As a teen Jenkins played folk festivals with her family, touring in a giant silver bus. She also toured as a backing musician with The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and The Fiery Furnace’s Eleanor Friedberger.

Jenkins’s breakthrough album slipped out in 2021. It was strangely endearing, recalling Van Morrison‘s 1980s work. In the year after the COVID pandemic, it was a welcome panacea, embracing nature.

Cassandra Jenkins Album Reviews

Play Till You Win

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

My Light, My Destroyer

Best Cassandra Jenkins Songs

EP

2014, not rated
Jenkins’s debut EP features a similar country-rock sound to her debut album.

Play Till You Win

2017, 6.5/10
Cassandra Jenkins didn’t break through to critical attention until her sophomore record. Listening to her debut album, it’s easy to see why. Play Till You Win is a competent and poised disc of retro-Americana. But there’s little to set it apart from the crowd. Jenkins’ smooth, clear vocals are the album’s strongest point.

Jenkins was already in her 30s when she released her debut. She’d already played as a musician for years, but also maintained a normal life working as a florist.

Play Till You Win is pleasant, but not as interesting as Jenkins’ later work. There’s some indication of her later direction with the sophisti-pop touches of ‘Honda’s Well’ and ‘Disco Death Dance’. There are pretty harmonies and pedal-steel parts, but there’s not enough personality.

Play Till You Win is a pleasant debut, but Jenkins hadn’t yet figured out what makes her unique.

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

2021, 8/10
Jenkins was set to tour with Purple Mountains. David Berman’s suicide in August 2019 changed these plans. She instead travelled to Norway to visit friends and process her grief. These events form the core of An Overview on Phenomenal Nature.

Berman is referenced on ‘New Bikini’ – “After David passed away/My friends put me up for a few days.” After modest sales of her earlier work, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was an unexpected success. Collectors found it purchase a physical copy.

Jenkins’ main collaborator is producer and multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman. Kaufman is a member of Bonny Light Horsemen and has worked with The National, Taylor Swift, and Josh Ritter. The arrangements are restrained with lovely woodwind parts, while the dual lead guitar parts on ‘Ambiguous Norway’ are gorgeous.

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature sounds dubious on paper. It’s an indie-folk record that celebrates nature. It adds monologues about how men have lost touch, and incorporates new-age textures you’d expect on a 1980s Van Morrison record. But it’s lovely in practice, pretty and warm. Jenkins’ voice is intimate and she’s a good enough lyricist to keep things interesting. She casually drops the word “panoply” into ‘Crosshairs’ and titles a song ‘Ambiguous Norway’.

The minimalist, meditative ‘Hailey’ is lovely. The lengthy closer ‘The Ramble’ brings the Van Morrison 1980s textures to the fore. With its saxophone and the exploratory atmosphere, it could have come from Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. ‘Hard Drive’ is the centrepiece, a mostly spoken-word piece recalling various conversations.

A security guard stopped me to offer an overview
On phenomenal nature
She said, “sculpture is not just formed from penetration
You see, men have lost touch with the feminine”
And with her pink lipstick
And her Queens accent
She went on for a while about our president
Hard Drive

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature is endearing and effective.

My Light, My Destroyer

2024, 8.5/10
The singular Phenomenal Nature is a tough record to follow. On My Light, My Destroyer, Jenkins ventures into space, with dialogues about Venus and Betelgeuse. It’s a worthy sequel to An Overview on Phenomenal Nature. She toughens and expands her sound without losing her mystique.

Jenkins ramps up the diversity on My Light, My Destroyer. Songs like ‘Delphinium Blue’ and ‘Betelgeuse’ reprise the mystical 1980s sound of Nature. On ‘Clams Casino’ and ‘Petco’ she uses a 1990s alt-rock sound. There’s a hint of a dance beat in ‘Only One’. The highlight is ‘Omakase’, which culiminates in the “my light, my destroyer” titular phrase. The record is unified by its childlike wonder at the universe.

Jenkins’s three albums to date have all featured a similarly titled song. There was ‘Halley’ on Play Till You Win, ‘Hailey’ on Phenomenal Nature, and ‘Hayley’ here. The most recent was an instrumental, making it difficult to see the connection.

Jenkins is still making beguiling music, and adding muscle to her sound is welcome.