"Wristwatch" Is Everything MJ Lenderman Does Best

Never did I think I'd hear an Apple Watch sung about so poetically. On "Wristwatch," the standout centerpiece from MJ Lenderman's excellent new album, Manning Fireworks, Lenderman turns the ubiquitous smartwatch into an emblem of post-4IR heartbreak. In the context of the song, the watch operates as both an empty brag to an ex-lover who presumably could care less – "I've got a wristwatch that's a compass and a cell phone" – and a perpetual reminder of the speaker's sad new state of affairs – "I've got a wristwatch that tells me I'm all alone." 

The smartwatch is just one of the many stand-ins for empty consumption that Lenderman peppers throughout the song. He ironically boasts of a Frank Ocean-esque beach house in Buffalo and a houseboat docked at the "Himbo Dome," sarcastically skewering any suggestion that conspicuous consumption can mend a broken heart. The imagery is absurd, a little goofy, and classic MJ Lenderman, who's made his name gesturing towards profundity through idiosyncratic details and offbeat vignettes.

Lenderman also possesses a great instinct for chord progressions and a keen ability to imbue them with gravity. Like previous barnburner "Tastes Just Like It Costs," "Wristwatch" is anchored by a weighty and satisfying minor key progression that lands like a gut punch every time it comes around. This is darkly comic, subtly devastating indie rock, and like many of Lenderman's best songs, "Wristwatch" simply feels like it couldn't have been written by anybody else.