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Does the world need a new Neil Young? In the year 2024, the original model is thankfully still functioning and productive, though if we need to have a replacement in reserve, MJ Lenderman is clearly the man for the job. Lenderman showed himself to be a truly valuable sideman in his guitar work with Wednesday and Waxahatchee, and his fourth solo album, 2024's Manning Fireworks, shows he's grown into an artist who is every bit as impressive and capable. Lenderman's music doesn't particularly sound like Neil Young past their shared love of the accents of country music and growling guitars, yet the comparison seems apt as his talents run in parallel with Young's. Lenderman's guitar playing is brilliantly satisfying while avoiding the standard cliches of six-string heroism (significantly, in "She's Leaving You," he derisively mentions someone who "believe(s) that Clapton was the second coming"), and the distance between his simple single-note picking and the fuzzy clouds of noise he can conjure gives him plenty of room to fill these songs. Lenderman is also a splendid songwriter, telling tales of small town life in the Deep South (and the people who live there, by choice or by circumstance) that are witty, compassionate, and strikingly realistic in his gift for details and observation. And while Lenderman doesn't have an especially strong voice, he makes his limitations work for him, and the plainspoken tone of his singing sounds as true as an overheard conversation. Manning Fireworks gives Lenderman room to rock out on numbers like "On My Knees," "Wristwatch," and the extended freak-out of "Bark at the Moon," where the crunch of his guitar takes center stage, and he's equally satisfying on tracks like "Rip Torn" and the title cut, capturing the ebb and flow of a slow river on a summer's day with evocative wisdom. Lenderman's songs document the lives of ordinary people living small lives, but he never suggests they're trivial or worthy of scorn -- he seems to be as much a character in his tunes as anyone else -- and coupled with his scrappy guitar and the satisfyingly loose report of his band, he makes it all into something often moving and always compelling. MJ Lenderman isn't Neil Young and doesn't need to be -- Manning Fireworks is his own fusion of the contemplation of Harvest and the release of Zuma, and it's a small triumph of noisy roots rock.

Manning Fireworks    2:59
Joker Lips    3:01
Rudolph    3:31
Wristwatch    3:42
She's Leaving You    4:38
Rip Torn    3:32
You Don't Know The Shape I'm In    3:36
On My Knees    3:52
Bark At The Moon    10:00