Last Valentine’s Day, an asteroid roughly the dimensions of a skyscraper passed between the Earth and the moon. Designated 2024 BR4 by NASA, the asteroid passed harmlessly by our planet; however, nothing in the physics of asteroids guaranteed this outcome. 2024 BR4 belongs to the Apollos, a group of near-earth asteroids whose orbits intersect with those of Earth. Metaphorically, they signify how much our survival depends on the luck of the cosmos.
Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter Cassandra Jenkins references the “asteroid the size of a skyscraper” on “Betelgeuse”, one of several field-recorded interludes on her new album, My Light, My Destroyer. Lyrically, the record references things cosmic and celestial as a set of motifs tying the tracks together. Musically, Jenkins presents her own unique blend of Americana, folk, jazz, and ambient sound – carrying everything a step further from her two previous studio releases, Play Till You Win (2017) and An Overview on Phenomenal Nature (2021).
The title, My Light, My Destroyer, alludes to the poet Anne Carson’s evocations of the god Apollo – the Greek God of Light with the power to destroy. In the myth of Cassandra, Apollo bestows the gift of prophecy upon Cassandra. However, when Cassandra rejects Apollo as a lover, he “destroys” her by ensuring all who hear her prophecies will reject them as lies.
Paradoxes like this turn up in various forms in Cassandra Jenkins’ songs. “Delphinium Blue”, for example, references a flowering perennial, delphinium, that is very beautiful and toxic to humans and animals. In “Omakase”, perhaps the most beguiling song on My Light, My Destroyer, Jenkins exhorts a loved one to “Pull me apart / I want to see who I am”, as if the act of figurative dismemberment is also the key to self-recognition.
Seldom far from Jenkins’s cosmic meditations is a preoccupation with human mortality. In “Aurora, IL”, Jenkins’ dark Americana frames stark fatalism: “Just a thin line between us and nothingness.” Lines like this recall the existential angst of Jenkins’ previous album, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, recorded after the death of David Berman – the Silver Jews/ Purple Mountains frontman with whom Cassandra Jenkins had been scheduled to tour before his suicide in 2019.
For all the ominous subject matter, My Light, My Destroyer has plenty of folk-rock fuel to propel the music. “Clams Casino” is a highway rocker featuring an “American car” that’s “seen just about every state”. Meanwhile, “Petco”, one of three singles from My Light, My Destroyer, is a guitar-driven tune in which a pet store visit staves off loneliness. Another single, “Only One,” is A more straightforward love song that adds a pop-rock glimmer to the end of the set.
Like other recent records by Mitski, Mary Timony, Jane Weaver, and Weyes Blood (all self-contained women multi-instrumentalists), My Light, My Destroyer feels like a complete musical statement. Like those other artists, Cassandra Jenkins combines different genres and moods in ways that feel both modern and retroactive. The analogue-sounding keyboards on “Delphinium Blue” recall old-school synthwave, and the forlorn trumpet haunting “Betelgeuse” and “Tape and Tissue” echoes Chet Baker and Lee Morgan.
A distinguishing element of My Light, My Destroyer is Jenkins’s use of field recordings and ambient passages to separate the main songs into groups of two or three. “Betelgeuse” features Jenkins’ mother musing with her daughter about the mysteries of the cosmos. “Shatner’s Theme” is a collage of nighttime sounds and radio noise, setting up a later allusion to William Shatner’s journey to outer space in “Aurora, IL”. “Music??” is another brief snippet of captured dialogue, while “Attente Téléphonique” is a composite of ambient music and French-language narration cocreated by Matice Maino.
Music this textured is bound to take a few listens to get a hold of. Most impressive is how My Light, My Destroyer presents music that can be easily enjoyed – hooks and memorable lyrics abound – yet unravels deeper layers of meaning the more you dig in. Andrew Lappin’s production is lush or sparse according to the needs of each track, and Jenkins’s songwriting (in conjunction with various co-writers) is evocative despite its conciseness. If there were any doubt, My Light, My Destroyer earns Cassandra Jenkins a place among today’s most intriguing and accomplished singer-songwriters.