Lindsey Jordan grew up in Baltimore also home to Beach House and Wye Oak, while at one point her guitar teacher was Helium’s Mary Timony. Seeing Paramore at the age of 8 made Jordan question her previously held assumption that only men could form bands. Jordan formed the band Snail Mail, but as the sole songwriter and with her face alone on the album covers it’s essentially a solo vehicle. She started her career early, recording the EP Habit at the age of 16. She signed with Matador while still at high school, and released her debut album Lush at 18.
Snail Mail’s indie rock is slow-paced and emotive, recalling forebears like the offbeat 1990s rock of Liz Phair and the confessions of Paul Westerberg’s 1980s records with The Replacements. Playing since the age of 5, Jordan is a creative guitarist and her unexpected guitar parts help to make her records sound fresh. While 2018’s Lush largely stuck to guitar-based indie rock, 2021’s impressive Valentine was much more expansive.
2018, 7.5/10 Lindsey Jordan wrote her debut album when she was only 17. Recorded with her eponymous band, it’s both musically and lyrically straightforward. Jordan told Rob Hakimian; “I like to think of it as sonically Lush, it’s fully immersive and you’re drowning yourself in the emotions of it.”
It’s a very mature album for an 18-year-old to make, but Lush isn’t as tuneful as her follow-up work, and it’s mostly notable for its poised dissection of youth. The standout is the 3/4 rocker ‘Stick’, a song that Jordan revisited from the 2016 EP Habit; it’s presented in a full band arrangement here. ‘Deep Sea’ features a French Horn solo, a welcome change of texture, while single ‘Heat Wave’ stands out as more energetic than most of the material.
Lush is very strong for an 18-year-old, but Jordan’s music would become more interesting.
Valentine
2021, 9.5/10 It’s difficult to believe that Lindsey Jordan is only 22 – she’s just delivered an enviable sophomore album that retains the strengths of her debut while expanding her sound. Valentine adds sonic candy like strings and synths – adding depth while not taking away her grit and authenticity.
Jordan tried unsuccessfully to write a sequel to 2018’s Lush while touring. When touring ceased due to COVID, she returned to her parents’ house in Baltimore and wrote much of Valentine. Her disaffected eloquence recalls The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg – both were raised Catholic, and both use the word “absolution” in a song.
Promisingly, the further Jordan strays from her core sound, the more striking the results are. There’s a bait and switch on the opening title track, with a poppy sound before the guitars kick in. ‘Ben Franklin’ was written during a stay in rehab and pits a glossy beat and sinuous bass line against tough guitars and a gritty vocal. Even more of a departure is the sophisti-pop of ‘Forever (Sailing)’, with its strings, while there’s a lovely middle eight on ‘Madonna’. Despite some genre-hopping, Valentine still forms a coherent whole and songs like ‘C. Et Al.’ are raw and heartfelt.
I’ve covered a lot of very good female American indie this year – there have been strong records from Flock of Dimes, Japanese Breakfast, and Lucy Dacus. But Valentine is the cream of the crop, an astoundingly accomplished album from a 22-year-old songwriter.
Best Snail Mail Songs
Ben Franklin Valentine Forever (Sailing) Stick C. Et Al
I’m still so hooked – three months into 2022 – on Valentine that I’ve yet to check out her first album, it’s on the ever-lengthening ‘to hear’ list though. Have to wonder where she’ll go from here
Yup, there are some pretty interesting options for her future – the yacht rock of ‘Forever (Sailing)’ is intriguing.
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Tired of making art by committee, Natalie Merchant left the 10,000 Maniacs in 1993. She wasn’t yet 30, but had served as lead singer for the alternative band for more than a decade. She immediately eclipsed her former band with her 1995 debut album Tigerlily, which spawned the top ten […]
Portishead formed in the city of Bristol, where a vibrant, multi-cultural music scene spawned trip-hop in the early 1990s. Trip-hop took the beats from hip hop, and slowed them down, adding textures and songs. Alongside Portishead, essentially the entire trip-hip scene originated in Bristol, with Massive Attack and Tricky also […]
Perhaps the most celebrated band to emerge from the 1970s punk movement, The Clash started as a straight-out punk band. But their music soon expanded, incorporating the reggae and dub they heard on London’s streets, as well as venturing into radio-friendly rock, hip-hop, and pretty much everything in between. As […]
The Moody Blues started their career as an R&B band, enjoying a hit with ‘Go Now’, fronted by future Wings member Denny Laine, in 1965. But after Laine left and Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined, the band found a new direction, lush pop songs, supported by Mike Pinder’s Mellotron. […]
Originating from an unsuccessful 1968 album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp, guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles enlisted vocalist and bassist Greg Lake, multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, as well as lyricist Peter Sinfield to form King Crimson. The group were immediately successful with their debut In The […]
The members of Black Midi met at the BRIT School in London, a performing art college whose other alumni include Amy Winehouse, Adele, FKA Twigs, and Imogen Heap. With access to the studio during school, they were able to get all the silly experimentation out of their system. The four […]
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
The band Television emerged from the same CBGB scene that produced Talking Heads, The Ramones, Blondie, and Patti Smith. The group was started by Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, and drummer Billy Ficca. Verlaine and Ficca were childhood friends, while Hell met Verlaine at high school in Delaware. Hell was replaced […]
In April 2021, some posts on this music website, like 10 Worst Songs of the 1980s and 10 Best Hit Songs of the 1980s, went vaguely viral. My traffic doubled in a month, and I considered monetising this site as a side hustle. In order to do this, I switched […]
The French horn, as its name suggests, evolved from humans blowing into actual animal horns, like the Jewish shofar. The modern French horn is a convoluted looking instrument, that produces a haunting and gentle sound. The horn is mostly used in orchestral music, but it’s found its way into a […]
When I was a teenager in the 1990s, the 1980s were often reviled as the decade that taste forgot. But I think this list is far less heinous than the 10 Worst Songs of the 1970s – the corporate vibes of the 1980s sound less dated than the hippie ethos […]
On New Year’s Eve 1974, Mick Fleetwood invited guitarist Lindsey Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham insisted that his girlfriend Stevie Nicks was part of the package, and Fleetwood Mac’s tenth and most successful line-up was formed. The line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, […]
I’m still so hooked – three months into 2022 – on Valentine that I’ve yet to check out her first album, it’s on the ever-lengthening ‘to hear’ list though. Have to wonder where she’ll go from here
Yup, there are some pretty interesting options for her future – the yacht rock of ‘Forever (Sailing)’ is intriguing.