Oversaturation of discourse aside, it felt kind of wrong to write about Manning Fireworks until we properly cracked into October. MJ Lenderman’s style of country-smoked indie rock has the rock chops to compliment a hazy day in a similar vibe that his other band Wednesday does, but the Asheville guitarist and songwriter’s slouched wordsmith ways hit better as the days dim, temperatures start to turn their back on you, nature’s shades of green fade to red, oranges, yellows, and ultimately, dried, brittle and brown, and the slowdown of life forces you to sit with your own thoughts a little longer than you’d like. Sonically, Manning Fireworks is also a thing of home-cooked comfort food for the season where anything with pedal steel and slide guitars is going to kindle much better against the spark of Lenderman’s punchline-packed observations of being lonely.

Be it his own backroads or that of the character sketches we encounter during the road trip, like the washed guy who docks his boat at the himbo dome on “Wristwatch” or the very divorced guy avoiding a confrontation with an obvious mid-life crisis by jamming Clapton into his rented Ferrari as he takes off for Vegas on “Leaving You”, Lenderman’s knack for deprecating dudes rock non-sequiturs puts him on pace of joining the same league of comically gonzo songwriters as Malkmus or Linkous who you assume aren’t taking themselves too seriously. It makes you feel a little better about your life for it, kind of like how a solid hang with an old bud who is also going through it — cracking open a ginger brew while cracking quips on existential dread — can get you both to crack a smile after a long ass week. This is music for anyone on a losing streak, in good company.

Recommended: “Joker Lips”, “Wristwatch”, “She’s Leaving You”

MJ Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks is available now on ANTI- Records.

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