My Light, My Destroyer - Cassandra Jenkins: Review

Review by Lav:

Earlier this decade Cassandra Jenkins blindsided me. I wasn't familiar with her music before critical praise started to flood in for her album An Overview On Phenomenal Nature in 2021. I completely fell in love with the record when I first heard it and I gave it a positive review, eventually even getting to interview Cassandra. So to say I was excited about this follow-up would be an understatement, especially after multiple singles I really enjoyed. What Cassandra serves up on My Light continues the fragile, touching serenity of its predecessor and proves that even adding some muscle on top can't break her stride. 

Though I wasn't head over heels for the album's lead single, each new release was a major step up. Delphinium Blue served as the second single and I like it a LOT. It displays the patience and gentle touch of Cassandra at her best and I absolutely love the vocalizations she uses to transition between passages. It's such a fragile, gentle song but it still manages to hit its most dramatic moments out of the park. The third single Petco is one of my favorite Cassandra songs to date that really blew me away when it dropped as a single. It captures an idea that I truly and deeply love, the aimlessness of walking around a store staring at random things in the aisles. It also happens to do it with one of the best hooks I've heard anywhere in 2024. 

One of the things I loved about Petco was the rock instrumentation it was able to interpolate while still sounding so serene. Clams Casino does something similar with wiry electric guitar and bumping drums. I love the way the repeated refrain of "I don't wanna laugh alone anymore" changes contextually throughout the song. Aurora, IL is another huge highlight. While songs about touring are extremely familiar of course Cassandra is able to elevate the form. She really captures the aimlessness of killing time in a random town by shifting focus in the middle of the song to whatever was going on in the news at the time. The lyric about her name being taken off the marquee where she performed is simple but it's stuck with me as my favorite part of the song. 

Other moments lean even further than ever before into Cassandra's serene beauty. Opener Devotion is an extremely gentle start to the record with soft singing over acoustic guitar plucking. It's a pretty optimistic song despite beginning with the acknowledgment that Cassandra's desperation was mistaken for devotion. It poetically lands at a moment of recovery in the end represented lyrically by a rising sun. Betelgeuse is a two-part song that begins with a recorded conversation between Cassandra and her mother while stargazing. It's extremely grounded and authentic in ways Cassandra has always been and the gentle piano keys and wandering saxophone lines of the second half are a perfect accompaniment. 

My favorite of all the deep cuts here is Omakase which has this simple presentation slipping between short refrains and even featuring some sampled recordings also of Cassandra singing. It's an instrumental wonder and one of the most entrancing things I've ever heard Cher make. The way it all feels like a bit list where she's checking off one refrains after another just leaves me on the edge of my seat. 

The deep cut I'm the least fond of is Tape And Tissue mostly because it has an arrangement of sweeping keys backing different passages throughout. It has a very awkward bridge that serves as one of the only places on the record where the meditative peace of everything is broken, albeit briefly. I also haven't really grown to love the lead single Only One. Mostly because the repetitive hook doesn't do much for me at all even after many many listens. 

But those are just blips on an otherwise incredibly strong tracklist that manages to deliver an impressive amount of variety without fracturing a peacefulness that never feels forced. It's the way this album sways so gently and patiently through its beautiful compositions, quirky interludes, and catchy hooks that makes it such a delightful breeze to listen to, just like Cassandra's last album. With a nearly unmatched poise and the ambition to stretch her sound to entirely new places, Cassandra has served up another absolute delight. 8/10

For more singer-songwriter music check out my review of Arooj Aftab's Night Reign