My Light, My Massage Parlor
Cassandra Jenkins
Dead Oceans
15 August 2025
Cassandra Jenkins apparently doesn’t like leaving her work alone, choosing not only to tinker with it after its initial release, but also to make those updated versions available to listeners. In February 2021, she released An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, followed nine months later with (An Overview On) An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, including alternate takes, outtakes,and “pre-mixes”. In that same vein, last year’s My Light, My Destroyer is followed up with a new record, My Light, My Massage Parlor.
This time around, the companion piece isn’t quite as direct an homage to its predecessor. While Jenkins always enjoys reveling in ethereal moods, My Light, My Destroyer is much more song-based. In contrast, the new record is a more direct ambient instrumental collection that stands alone quite effectively, although it could be seen as a sort of “dream version” of the previous record.
The title appears to be a reference to the record’s setting, as field recordings of a massage parlor reception desk, complete with customer service conversations and phone calls, act as occasional backdrops. Several of the songs are obvious nods to the previous record: the spacey ballad “Delphinium Blue” is reinterpreted as “Delphinium Bliss”, featuring, here and throughout the album, the piano work of Michael Coleman. The moody field recordings of “Betelgeuse” become a more calming, meditative “Betelgeuse Masseuse”.
Accompanied not only by Coleman’s piano but also by woodwinds, horns, strings, wind chimes, and cricket sounds, Jenkins re-records the previous album’s “Hayley”, with the dramatic strings of the first version replaced by moodier piano, saxophone, and outdoor ambience. Other highlights include the haunting, lyrical “Omakase of Time”, which benefits significantly from the vibes of nature, blending in with the music more than ever before, the elegant, sparse “Wormhold Music”, and the playful, jazzy “Bebop Extravaganza”, filled to the brim with background sounds that make the listener feel like they’re right there in Jenkins’ everyday world.
My Light, My Massage Parlor may not have the compositional weight of its predecessor. Still, as an album that conveys moods and calming vibes, along with the creative imagination of its creator and her fellow musicians, it’s a beautiful piece of work and another reminder of the unique artistic mind of Cassandra Jenkins.
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