While Habit chronicled the growing pains of adolescence through its muddled soundscape, Lush sounds more brash, serving as the perfect soundtrack for the early years of young adulthood. The glacial pace of the intro track sets the mood for an exceptionally cool LP. She’s on the edge of losing the teenage rocker denomination that many a profile has played on time and again. A chapter of her life has closed as she graduated from high school this past spring. She’s been through a change of pace in her day-to-day that’s reflective of the vibe given off by the album. On Lush, Jordan has traded in uncertainty for acceptance in a show of force only achievable through age. Jordan, the perfect example of the new breed of DIY performer, straddles the line between feeling mundane and personal in this record of youth in transition. Working off the success of the well-received 2016 EP Habit, indie rock project Snail Mail - spearheaded by 18-year-old Maryland native Lindsey Jordan - has come out of the gate running with a debut offering in the form of Lush. Now one of their own has arrived with her debut. Although not without precedent, they exhibit a level of authenticity never before seen in their predecessors. Armed with nothing but laptops and modest musical acumen, they hail mostly from suburbs, brewing a myriad of sonic concoctions in the confines of their bedrooms. All of them skew young most share the same technologically adept existence of their Gen Z and lateborn millenial peers. They are bright, unquestionably talented and produce work that dances between independent genre lines as if they were nothing. Recorded with producer Jake Aron and engineer Johnny Schenke, with contributions from touring bandmates drummer Ray Brown and bassist Alex Bass as well, Lush sounds cinematic, yet still perfectly homemade.By Dalvin Aboagye ( new kind of artist is emerging within the heterogeneous pockets of music floating around online.
In the time that’s elapsed since Habit, Jordan has graduated high school, toured the country, opened for the likes of Girlpool and Waxahatchee as well as selling out her own headline shows, and participated in a round-table discussion for the New York Timesabout women in punk - giving her time to reflect and refine her songwriting process by using tempered pacings and alternate tunings to create a jawdropping debut both thoughtful and cathartic. By the time she was sixteen, she had already released her debut EP, Habit, on local punk label Sister Polygon Records.
Around that time, Jordan started frequenting local shows in Baltimore, where she formed close friendships within the local scene, the impetus for her to form a band. Growing up in Baltimore suburb Ellicot City, Jordan began her classical guitar training at age five, and a decade later wrote her first audacious songs as Snail Mail. Lush feels at times like an emotional rollercoaster, only fitting for Jordan’s explosive, dynamic personality. Jordan’s most masterful skill is in crafting tension, working with muted melodrama that builds and never quite breaks, stretching out over moody rockers and soft-burning hooks, making for visceral slow-releases that stick under the skin. Throughout Lush, Jordan’s clear and powerful voice, acute sense of pacing, and razor-sharp writing cut through the chaos and messiness of growing up: the passing trends, the awkward house parties, the sick-to-your-stomach crushes and the heart wrenching breakups.
Lindsey Jordan’s voice rises and falls with electricity throughout Lush, her debut album as Snail Mail, spinning with bold excitement and new beginnings at every turn.