late night vibe? Madonna from Snail Mail is a must on the playlist, come listen
Photo by Tina Tyrell
Today Snail Mail (Lindsey Jordan) releases “Madonna,” a taste of her forthcoming new album Valentine which is out November 5 via Matador Lindsey says, “I am excited to share this one! In summation, it’s about why love can’t exist between a person and a concept of a person. Remove the pedestal and you might realize there was never anything there at all.” Listen/share “Madonna” here and watch the live performance video - “Madonna” (Live at The Armour-Stiner Octagon House)”
“Madonna,” follows the previously released “Ben Franklin,” and the album’s title track, “Valentine.” Both singles received widespread critical praise with Entertainment Weekly saying “‘Valentine' is as auspicious a first taste as we could hope for, gorgeously robust and sonically adventurous. [It] feels anything but small. It is bolder, catchier, and more expansive than its predecessor. From her sorrow and solitude, Jordan reemerges as one of indie rock's most astute, confident, and compelling songwriters.” Pitchfork said, “Her voice is as calm and airy as it’s ever been, yet somehow more vicious than her scream" and Fader noted, “(‘Ben Franklin’ is) emblematic of the stylistic and artistic leap Lindsay Jordan has made from album one to album two."
Valentine is available for pre-order here, with limited edition vinyl available at both the Matador and Snail Mail online stores. To ring in the album's release Jordan will be doing a series of Valentine record signings in NYC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
Please visit the store links below for further details:
New York - Rough Trade - Thursday, Nov 4 at 5 pm ET
(here)
Philadelphia - Repo - Friday, Nov 5 at 5 pm ET
(here)
Baltimore - Sound Garden - Saturday Nov 6 at 2 pm ET
(here)
Snail Mail has also announced a worldwide tour with North American dates kicking off November 27 in Richmond, VA, and concluding in Silver Spring, MD on Dec 21. Following a tour of the UK and Europe she returns to North America on April 5 hitting major venues across the country including Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on April 7, the Riviera Theatre in Chicago on April 14, and the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on April 27. Tickets are on sale now via snailmail.band. All dates are listed below.
A hugely anticipated follow-up, Valentine was written and produced by 22-year-old Lindsey Jordan and co-produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). Written in 2019-2020 the album is filled with romance, heartbreak, blood, sweat, and tears. But Valentine is poised and self-possessed, channeling its anger and dejection into empowering revenge fantasies and rewriting the narrative of its own fate. Stitched throughout it is the melodrama and the camp Jordan so deftly utilizes to offset her pain. The sonic leap forward can be heard from the first moments of the title track – the whispered voice and eerie sci-fi synths erupting into a full-on stadium-sized adrenaline-rush of a chorus. From there it’s all go – with digitized electronic inflected anthems, swooning baroque FM rockers, smoldering slow-jam R&B, and some of the most gorgeous and heart-rending finger-picked guitar ballads this side of Elliott Smith. The star of the show however is Lindsey’s voice – no longer the prodigal wunderkind, her vocals, and words are rawer, deeper, snarlier, and more feeling than ever before.
Valentine is the follow-up to Snail Mail’s first full-length, Lush. Her debut, written at just 17, turned the world on to an alarming talent drawing worldwide critical acclaim. The album sold 200,000 units and spurred US, UK, and EU tour sellouts. She became a breakout star and was included in Billboard’s 21 under 21 along with Billie Eilish, Khalid, and more. Known in equal measures for her masterful guitar playing and her songwriting gravitas, The New York Times called Jordan “an innovator, creating fresh expectations for what a complex artistic statement from a young voice can sound like today.” With Valentine, Snail Mail delivers on all of that promise.
More about Snail Mail by Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee):
On her 2018 debut album Lush, seventeen-year-old Lindsey Jordan sang “I’m in full control / I’m not lost / Even when it’s love / Even when it’s not”. Her natural ability to be many things at once resonated with a lot of people. The contradiction of confidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact of a wrecking ball when put to tape. It was an impressive and unequivocal career-making moment for Jordan.
On Valentine, her sophomore album out November 5th on Matador, Lindsey solidifies and defines this trajectory in a blaze of glory. In 10 songs, written over 2019-2020 by Jordan alone, we are taken on an adrenalizing odyssey of genuine originality in an era in which "indie" music has been reduced to gentle, homogenous pop composed mostly by ghostwriters. Made with careful precision, Valentine shows an artist who has chosen to take her time. The reference points are broad and psychically stirring, while the lyrics build masterfully on the foundation set by Jordan’s first record to deliver a deeper understanding of heartbreak.
Jordan took her newfound sense of clarity and calm to Durham, North Carolina, along with the bones of a new album. Here she worked with Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). For all the album’s vastness and gravity, it was in this small home studio that Jordan and Cook chipped away over the winter of early 2021 at co-producing a dynamic collection of genre-melding new songs, finishing it triumphantly in the spring. They were assisted by longtime bandmates Ray Brown and Alex Bass, as well as engineer Alex Farrar, with a live string section, added later at Spacebomb Studios in Richmond.
Leaning more heavily into samples and synthesizers, the album hinges on a handful of remarkably untraditional pop songs. The first few seconds of the opener and title track ‘Valentine’ see whispered voice and eerie sci-fi synth erupt into a stadium-sized, endorphin-rush of a chorus that is an overwhelming statement of intent. “Ben Franklin”, “Forever (Sailing)” and “Madonna” take imaginative routes to the highest peaks of catchiness. Jordan has always sung with a depth of intensity and conviction, and the climactic pop moments on Valentine are delivered with such a tenet and darkness and beauty that’s noisy and guttural, taking on the singularity that usually comes from a veteran artist.
As captivating as the synth-driven songs are, it’s the more delicate moments like “Light Blue”, “c.et. al.” and “Mia” that distill the album’s range and depth. “Baby blue, I’m so behind / Can’t make sense of the faces in and out of my life / Whirling above our daily routines / Both buried in problems, baby, honestly” Jordan sings on “c. et. al.” with a devastating certainty. These more ethereal, dextrously finger-picked folk songs peppered in throughout the album are nuanced in their vocal delivery and confident in their intricate arrangement. They come in like a breath of air, a moment to let the mind wander, but quickly drown the listener in their melodic alchemy and lyrical punch.
The album is rounded out radiantly by guitar-driven rock songs like “Automate”, “Glory” and “Headlock”. Reminiscent of Lush but with a marked tonal shift, Jordan again shows her prowess as a guitar player with chorus-y leads and rhythmic, wall-of-sound riffs. “Headlock” highlights this pivot with high-pitched dissonance and celestially affected lead parts – “Can’t go out I’m tethered to / Another world where we’re together / Are you lost in it too?”, she sings with grit and fatigue, building so poignantly on her sturdy foundation of out-and-out melancholy. On Valentine, we are taken 100 miles deeper into the world Jordan created with Lush, led through passageways and around dark corners, landing somewhere we never dreamed existed.
Today, in the wake of recording Valentine, Jordan is focused on trying to continue healing without slowing down. The album comes in the midst of so much growth, in the fertile soil of a harrowing bottom-out. On the heels of life-altering success, a painful breakup, and 6 weeks in treatment, Jordan appears vibrant and sharp. “Mia, don’t cry / I love you forever / But I gotta grow up now / No I can’t keep holding onto you anymore” she sings on the album closer “Mia”. She sings softly but her voice cuts through like a hacksaw. The song is lamenting a lost love, saying a somber goodbye, and it closes the door on a bitterly cold season for Jordan. Leaving room for a long and storied path, Valentine is somehow a jolt and a love buzz all at once.
