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 t

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