Coming off “On the Beach,” we now present to you the closest thing Gen Z has to a modern-day Neil: a slacker poet with a fuzz pedal, a fondness for heartbreak, and a voice that sounds like it’s thinking out loud. MJ Lenderman might not be running from the mainstream, but he sure as hell isn’t chasing it either. Let’s get into it.
“How many more bug bites and other subtle misfortunes can I withstand tonight?”
Boat Songs sounds like someone yelling existential punchlines into a beat-up four-track from the bed of a pickup parked outside the Majestic Diner in the dead of night. Which is to say—it’s a little chaotic, a little fried, and absolutely glorious.
This is an album built from the stuff real life is made of: beer-soaked mornings, drive-thru regret, half-formed thoughts that hit you too hard at the wrong time. Asheville’s MJ Lenderman—also the guitarist for Wednesday and formerly the drummer for Indigo De Souza—has made a record that feels more like a mood than a mission statement. His third studio album is pure Southern indie rock with no polish, no pretense, and more emotional depth than most albums that try twice as hard.
There’s a long tradition of bands who find meaning in the mess — early Modest Mouse, Silver Jews, The Hold Steady — and Boat Songs belongs right there in the mix. Lenderman’s writing has that same lived-in quality, full of fast food references, sports metaphors, broken bones, and sorrows as those touchstone artists. It’s like if The Big Lebowski wrote country songs after a long shift at AutoZone.
Take “Hangover Game.” On the surface, it’s about Michael Jordan’s flu game, but like everything else on this album, it’s really about something deeper: burnout, performance, shame. It’s funny until it hurts. That’s Lenderman’s secret weapon — his ability to make you laugh, then think, then feel something you weren’t ready for.
There’s a sleepy ache running through every distorted slide guitar and tossed-off lyric here. These are songs for people who’ve made peace with feeling a little lost, who know exactly where to find the best gas station breakfast sandwich, and who understand that humor and sadness are often part of the same feeling.
“TLC Cage Match” sounds like it’s about to collapse in on itself (in addition to being a killer riff on Clarence Carter’s “Do What You Gotta Do),” and “You Are Every Girl to Me” might be the loosest love song since Wilco’s A.M. days. This album doesn’t beg for attention — it just exists in its own space. And once you hear it, you want to stay there.
Even the album cover tells you something: a scorched motorcycle and a faceless figure, all chrome and shadow. It looks like a scene from a dream where you’re not sure if you’re watching a crash or remembering one. And somehow, that makes sense for Boat Songs, an album full of wreckage, heartache, and unexpected beauty.
This isn’t hipster bait. This is Neil Young in a Kid Rock T-shirt. Lucinda Williams smoking a joint in a Bojangles parking lot. It’s the kind of record you don’t just listen to — you live inside for a while. Put it on when the party’s over, the lights feel too bright, and someone brings up how weird their childhood was. You might hear these songs playing in someone’s backyard in Virginia-Highlands, as a few mid-thirties friends toast to Lenderman’s late heroes David Berman and Jason Molina, swapping stories of shows gone by and trying not to let the grill rust.
Because that’s what Boat Songs is: music for anyone who knows life’s a mess — but still worth singing about. If you were as lucky as your intrepid columnists, you saw him bring down the house back in January of this year at the two Variety Playhouse shows. His October concerts in Nashville and Asheville are the closest he’ll come to Atlanta in 2025.
Megan’s favorite song on this album is “You Are Every Girl to Me”. This track exudes that fuzzy honeymoon phase feeling you get in a new relationship, or the dopamine high from seeing your crush’s name pop up on your phone. The feelings are mutual and heavy for MJ Lenderman as he peels back to reveal his sensitive, soft side, proving that no matter where he goes, he is completely enthralled with everyday reminders of his love. Small gestures — like buying your girl a t-shirt from the airport’s local merch section — may not seem like a lot, but if it’s coming from the right person… it means everything.
“I bought you a shirt
From the local merch at the airport
Gave it to you and screamed
“You are еvery girl to me”
Wendell’s favorite song on the album is “Tastes Just Like It Costs.” It feels like checking your bank account after one too many takeout orders and realizing you’re stretched thin — not just with money, but in your head and heart too. The music leans country, but it’s rough around the edges — like something Pavement might’ve made if they grew up in North Carolina. If Neil’s “Tonight’s the Night” and Drive-By Truckers’ “Outfit” got blackout drunk together and wandered into a Waffle House, this would be playing on the jukebox between smoke breaks. What makes the song stick is how simply it carries its sadness. No big breakdowns, no dramatic buildup — just a tired voice saying what a lot of people feel: everything costs more these days, even pretending you’re okay.
We resisted the temptation to cover the brilliant Manning Fireworks, his slightly more polished, instant classic album from 2024, as those songs have that irrepressible quality you find in so many of Tom Petty’s tunes… namely, you can’t dislodge them from being stuck in your head and we’ve got important work to do here on the Common Chords beat. All tracks on Boat Songs (minus “Six Flags”) are available in live form on his 2023 album And the Wind (Live and Loose!) and you should definitely check that out too (The Wind is his backing band).
MJ Lenderman is available on Bandcamp, all streaming platforms, and most places where records are sold. He was on NPR Tiny Desk with The Wind in January and you can find that here: MJL Tiny Desk. You are likely to find his songs played on SiriusXM stations SiriusXMU, The Spectrum, The Coffee House and Outlaw Country.
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