It's becoming my second nature
Wandering through the pet store
And stare into the sideways gaze of a lizard
It doesn't always make me feel better
Just less alone
(from “Petco”)
The watchful eye of a lizard, the impenetrable blue of the flowering Delphiniuma meteorite that splits the starry sky, and that beloved New York City with which to pulsate and breathe. They are the new confidants who in “My Light, My Destroyer” accompany Cassandra Jenkins through a multifaceted reflection on existing in the cosmos and an underlying feeling of solitude from which life cannot seem to free itself. In fact, it is not just an emotion physically anchored to a hotel room a thousand miles from home, as in “Aurora, IL”, but also an existential octopus as in “Petco”, in “Clams Casino” or in the smoky blanket that envelops the visitor in “Attente Téléphonique”.
“My Light, My Destroyer” is therefore a journey into the desolate folds of the Universe, but also a self-investigating gaze that frays the fabrics of the unconscious in search of some, albeit fleeting, truth to hold on to. Armed with the same subtle vein of irony that transpired from the songs of “An Overview On Phenomenal Nature”, Cassandra dialogues and relates to the surrounding in such an immersive way that reality transfigures into a surreal space. Thus the comforting routine of a job at a florist described in “Delphinium Blue” changes into a highly psychedelic experience thanks to a powerful synesthesia resulting from the encounter of vivid colors, the intense scent of flowers and new age synthesizers.
Using a musically eclectic approach and the help of a large group of colleagues, the singer-songwriter perfectly blends the indie-rock turns of “Clams Casino” and “Petco”, the folk(-rock) ballads “Devotion” and “Aurora, IL” (the new “Michelangelo”) and the more ambitious art-pop scores “Omakase” and “Only One”. Interspersing the sound flow with field recordings and the recordings of other voices (for example, that of the mother in “Betelgeuse”), Jenkins also manages to get even closer than in the past to the listener, establishing a sort of conversation. And perhaps, precisely through this trick, Cassandra has managed to break the sense of solitude that afflicts us and to find in a hitherto secret light the flame around which we can gather to illuminate our existence.
07/14/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
