Cassandra Jenkins has done a lot since her last album, 2021’s An Overview On Phenomenal Nature: performed backing vocals on Kevin Morby’s “Rock Bottom,” did guest vocals on Will Sheff’s “In The Thick Of It,” released an improv EP with Suhail Yusuf Khan, and more. Today, the Brooklyn singer-songwriter is announcing her new LP, My Light, My Destroyer, along with the news that she has signed to Dead Oceans. The lead single “Only One” is out now with a music video directed by Lydia Fine and Tony Blahd.

About the song, Jenkins said in a statement, “It’s about a Groundhog Day effect, finding yourself in the same situation over and over again, not knowing how to get out of that loop — and in some sense, an unwillingness to break a cycle because you’re blinded by your circumstances.”

“Only One” has a lyric that depicts a street encounter with Sisyphus, which Jenkins explains is her way of “poking fun at heartbreak, and heartbreak’s world view — an inability to see anything but itself, and a need to wallow in the illusion of permanence.”

Jenkins felt “invigorated” by the critical acclaim An Overview On Phenomenal Nature received, but she struggled to work on its follow-up due to exhaustion from two years of touring. “I was coming from a place of burn out and depletion, and in the months following the session, I struggled to accept that I didn’t like the record I had just made. It felt uninspired,” she said, “so I started over.” She got together with producer, engineer, and mixer Andrew Lappin, and things started to make sense. “When we listened back in the control room that first day, I could see a space on my record shelf start to open up, because the songs were finding their home in real time. That spark informed the blueprint for the rest of the album, and its completion was propelled by a newfound momentum.”

Influences include musicians like Tom Petty, Annie Lennox, Neil Young, Radiohead (The Bends in particular), the Breeders, PJ Harvey, Pavement, David Bowie (specifically Blackstar), and writers such as Anne Carson, Maggie Nelson, Rebecca Solnit, and David Berman. The album was also made with a bunch of collaborators: Palehound’s El Kempner, Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, Isaac Eiger who played in Strange Ranger, Katie Von Schleicher, Zoë Brecher of Hushpuppy, Daniel McDowell of Amen Dunes, producer and instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, producer Stephanie Marziano, and director/actor/journalist Hailey Benton Gates.

Watch the video for “Only One” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Devotion”
02 “Clams Casino”
03 “Delphinium Blue”
04 “Shatner’s Theme”
05 “Aurora, IL”
06 “Betelgeuse”
07 “Omakase”
08 “Music??”
09 “Petco”
10 “Attente Téléphonique”
11 “Tape and Tissue”
12 “Only One”
13 “Hayley”

My Light, My Destroyer is out 7/12 on Dead Oceans.