In “Wristwatch”, MJ Lenderman paints a vivid portrait of a comically failed character. The song appears on Lenderman’s excellent 2024 album, Manning Fireworks, and speaks to how technology has created loneliness for some, while connecting the many.
Nowhere Man
“Wristwatch” opens with a reference to Slade’s glam hit, “Cum On Feel The Noize”. The song later became a hit for the heavy metal band Quiet Riot. And it’s an example of the dry wit and slacker in-jokes that populate many Lenderman tunes.
So you say I’ve got a funny face,
It makes me money,
So you say I’ve wasted my life away.
The drive toward status animates this nowhere man, but his achievements are either things no one wants—a beach house in frigid Buffalo—or something ubiquitous like a smartwatch.
Well, I got a beach home up in Buffalo,
And a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cell phone.
And a wristwatch that tells me you’re all alone.
While Lenderman’s man focuses on stuff, he hints that there’s someone whom he’d happily trade it all for.
I’d still take your amazing grace,
I’d give all my money,
And I’d still take your pretty face.
Next, Lenderman continues with another joke between friends and what is perhaps the song’s most discussed lyric:
I got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome.
And a wristwatch that’s a pocket knife and a megaphone.
“When the ‘himbo dome’ line came up, that made us laugh really hard. It was kind of insane; like, maybe we shouldn’t put this in the song… what even is that? But it just made us laugh so hard that we had to do it,” he said.
The Idiot
The guy in “Wristwatch” desperately wants to succeed. A kind of aloof idiot, which, though redundant, does dot the i’s and cross the t in “idiot.” Convinced of his awesomeness, the narrator relies on his smartwatch to remind him how sad and lonely he remains.
“Wristwatch”, like many tunes on Manning Fireworks, plays like the soundtrack to daily banality and to how people fail in profound ways. This spiraling character tries to cure his boredom and repeated failures by amassing stuff. But perhaps his most valuable thing, the thing that tells him he’s tragic, is still his greatest asset.
And a wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own.
Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage