The FADER’s 2024 Songs of the Summer bracket is divided into four March Madness-style regionals, and the winner of the Slacker was MJ Lenderman’s “She’s Leaving You” Below, Cady Siregar explains why the slacker-rock jam should snatch the top spot on your playlist.
Listen to the Slacker episode of The FADER’s Songs of the Summer series wherever you get your podcasts, or embedded below.
The FADER’s Songs of Summer is presented by Splice. Discover expertly created and curated samples in any style imaginable with a catalog so deep, it’s dangerous.
Summer flings, summer romances, summer loves: they’re written into the season like tan lines. It’s easy to believe that anything is possible when the days are this long, the sun is this warm, and your inhibitions are this low. But suffering a heartbreak during the summertime can make you feel taunted by the beating sun and the endless blue sky, their amorous associations now tainted for the rest of the year, and perhaps longer.
MJ Lenderman’s “She’s Leaving You” is the slacker anthem of the summer, a no-frills indie rock banger with shades of Built to Spill and Pavement that’s melancholy in tone, but with stadium-ready hooks. The Wednesday lead guitarist (who has quickly become a star in his own right) laments a failed relationship, acting as narrator as he urges the unnamed protagonist to get up, and get dressed. It’s no use wallowing in your miserable funk: she’s leaving you. Lenderman has a knack for painting caricatures of indie rock boy archetypes in his lyrics, slyly penning tongue-in-cheek portraits that retain a deep authenticity. He urges them to go “rent a Ferrari and sing the blues,” suggesting that Clapton might make them feel better. It brings some much-needed self-awareness to the era of “dudes rock” machismo.
Ultimately, Lenderman’s main plea is for the person he is addressing — himself, a friend, a fictional character — to try and move on with their life, and that they’ve got work to do if they want to get out of the darkness. Yes, summer is for loves of all kinds, but they’re for celebrating the end of them, too. “She’s Leaving You” is for commiserating with your friends over cold tall boys about the end of a passionate endeavor you wished had lasted just a tiny bit longer. MJ Lenderman might not be the cure to loneliness, but he might make you feel less lonely.
