News, Reviews

Snail Mail Returns With New Album ‘Valentine’ due November 5th via Matador + New Single Shared & UK Tour Dates

September 17, 2021

SNAIL MAIL ANNOUNCES

VALENTINE

OUT NOVEMBER 5TH VIA MATADOR

ANNOUNCES UK, EU & NORTH AMERICAN 2021-2022 TOUR DATES

Snail Mail (Lindsey Jordan) announces Valentine, her new album out November 5th via Matador. To mark the occasion, she has released the title track, ‘Valentine’, and its outrageous period drama companion video directed by Josh Coll.
 
I wanted to take as much time as possible with this record to make sure I was happy with every detail before unleashing it unto y’all,” says Jordan. “Referring to the process as the deepest level of catharsis and therapy I have ever experienced would be a huge understatement. Valentine is my child!” The album is available for pre-order  here including limited edition vinyl variants.

This rich vocal harmony commences the proceeding and with the immediate start brings the entire audience’s attention to the wide range of tones on offer before the intricate and ominous ambiance follows the vocals and starts to shape the exploration. The new release allows a combination of few crucial textures to emerge and elevate the standout melodies. This dark and ambiguous setting adds this swelling energy into this ensemble.

When the arrangement transitions to the immersive chorus, the listener embraces the mammoth section that comes into play, offering this melancholic touch to the structure and far-reaching elongated notes. Snail Mail brings this fearlessness into the creation by dropping the guard and allowing this pure intimacy to shine, that intimacy and honest trait simply explode once more the elements fade out and once again the attention fixates on the lyrics and the impressive, powerful delivery.

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) in 2019-2020. The album is filled with romance, heartbreak, blood, sweat and tears. But Valentine is poised and self-possessed, channelling 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, smouldering 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.

Snail Mail has also announced a UK, European and US tour dates. The UK leg kicks off February 18 at Manchester Academy 2, before visiting Glasgow and Bristol and culminating at O2 Kentish Town Forum in London on February 23. A full list of upcoming tour dates can be found below. Tickets go on pre-sale Monday, September 20th @ 10am BST. Access to the pre-sale will be available with pre-ordering the album from the Matador webstore HERE (UK only). Tickets go on general sale Wednesday, September 22nd @ 10am BST.

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. “Lindsey Jordan is arguably alt-rock’s most exciting new name,” said the Sunday TimesThe Observer noted her “powerfully evocative vocals”, NME referred to Jordan as “… the next-great American songwriter”, and MTV UK called her “the next generation of indie-rock”.  The album was described alternately as “… the slow-burning rock album of summer” (i-D), “Capturing early adulthood in all its messy splendor” (Crack) and “A treat” (Stylist). Lush was named one of the Albums of the Year by BBC Arts & Entertainment, The Guardian, NME, Line Of Best Fit, Crack, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and many more, selling 200,000 units and spurring US, UK and EU tour sellouts. Jordan 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.

VALENTINE TRACK LISTING

1. Valentine
2. Ben Franklin
3. Headlock
4. Light Blue
5. Forever (Sailing)
6. Madonna
7. c. et. al.
8. Glory
9. Automate
10. Mia

TOUR DATES:

2021
Sat Nov 27 2021 – Richmond VA @ The National *
Sun Nov 28 2021 – Charlotte NC @ Neighborhood Theatre *
Tue Nov 30 2021 – Orlando FL @ The Beacham Theater *
Wed Dec 1 2021 – Tampa FL @ The Ritz Ybor *
Fri Dec 3 2021 – Birmingham AL @ Saturn *
Sat Dec 4 2021 – Knoxville TN @ The Mill & Mine *
Sun Dec 5 2021 – Louisville KY @ Headliners Music Hall *
Tue Dec 7 2021 – Milwaukee WI @ Turner Hall *
Wed Dec 8 2021 – Madison WI @ Majestic Theatre *
Fri Dec 10 2021 – St Louis MO @ The Pageant *
Sat Dec 11 2021 – Bloomington IL @ The Castle Theatre *
Sun Dec 12 2021 – Columbus OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre *
Mon Dec 13 2021 – Detroit MI @ Majestic Theatre *
Wed Dec 15 2021 – Millvale PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre *
Thu Dec 16 2021 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place *
Fri Dec 17 2021 – Providence RI @ Fete Music Hall *
Sat Dec 18 2021 – Asbury Park NJ @ The Stone Pony *
Sun Dec 19 2021 – Norfolk VA @ The NorVa *
Tue Dec 21 2021 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore *

2022
Fri Feb 18 2022 – Manchester UK @ Manchester Academy 2
Sun Feb 20 2022 – Glasgow UK @ QMU
Tue Feb 22 2022 – Bristol UK @ SWX
Wed Feb 23 2022 – London UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town
Fri Feb 25 2022 – Paris FR @ Le Trabendo
Sat Feb 26 2022 – Lyon FR @ Epicerie Moderne
Sun Feb 27 2022 – Bologna IT @ Locomotiv
Mon Feb 28 2022 – Milan IT @ Magnolia
Wed Mar 2 2022 – Zürich CH @ Bogen F
Thu Mar 3 2022 – Munich DE @ Ampere
Fri Mar 4 2022 – Dresden DE @ Groovestation
Sun Mar 6 2022 – Copenhagen DK @ Loppen
Mon Mar 7 2022 – Gothenburg SE @ Oceanen
Tue Mar 8 2022 – Oslo NO @ Parkteatret
Thu Mar 10 2022 – Stockholm SE @ Slaktkyrkan
Sat Mar 12 2022 – Berlin DE @ Columbia Theater
Sun Mar 13 2022 – Hamburg DE @ Knust
Mon Mar 14 2022 – Brussels BE @ AB Ballroom
Tue Mar 15 2022 – Cologne DE @ Gebäude 9
Wed Mar 16 2022 – Amsterdam NL @ Paradiso Noord
Tue Apr 5 2022 – Philadelphia PA @ Union Transfer #
Wed Apr 6 2022 – Philadelphia PA @ Union Transfer #
Thu Apr 7 2022 – Brooklyn NY @ Kings Theatre #
Fri Apr 8 2022 – Boston MA @ Royale #
Sat April 9 2022 – Montreal QC @ Club Soda #
Mon Apr 11 2022 – Toronto ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre #
Tue Apr 12 2022 – Cleveland OH @ Agora Theatre #
Thu Apr 14 2022 – Chicago IL @ Riviera Theatre #
Fri Apr 15 2022 – Minneapolis MN @ First Avenue #
Sat Apr 16 2022 – Lawrence KS @ Liberty Hall #
Sun Apr 17 2022 – Denver CO @ Ogden Theater #
Wed Apr 20 2022 – Seattle WA @ Moore Theatre +
Thu Apr 21 2022 – Vancouver BC @ Vogue Theatre +
Fri Apr 22 2022 – Portland OR @ Wonder Ballroom +
Sat Apr 23 2022 – Portland OR @ Wonder Ballroom +
Sun Apr 24 2022 – Oakland CA @ Fox Theater +
Wed Apr 27 2022 – Los Angeles CA @ Hollywood Palladium +
Thu Apr 28 2022 – San Diego CA @ The Observatory North Park +
Fri Apr 29 2022 – Mesa AZ @ The Nile +
Sat Apr 30 2022 – Santa Fe NM @ Meow Wolf +
Mon May 2 2022 – Austin TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater +
Tue May 3 2022 – Dallas TX @The Factory Studio +
Thu May 5 2022 – Atlanta GA @ The Masquerade – Heaven Stage +
Fri May 6 2022 – Asheville NC @ The Orange Peel +
Sat May 7 2022 – Carrboro NC @ Cat’s Cradle +
Sun May 8 2022 – Nashville TN @ Brooklyn Bowl – Nashville +

* w/ Spencer and Hotline TNT
# w/ Joy Again
+ w/ The Goon Sax

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.

On “Ben Franklin”, the second single of the album, Jordan sings “Moved on, but nothing feels true / Sometimes I hate her just for not being you / Post rehab I’ve been feeling so small / I miss your attention, I wish I could call”. It’s here that she mourns a lost love, conceding the true nature of a fleeting romantic tie-up and ultimately, referencing a stay in a recovery facility in Arizona. This 45-day interlude followed issues stemming from a young life colliding with sudden fame and success. Since she was not allowed to bring her instruments or recording equipment, Jordan began tabulating the new album arrangements on paper solely out of memory and imagination. It was after this choice to take radical action that Valentine really took its unique shape.

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 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 a darkness and a 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 albums 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 bitter cold season for Jordan. Leaving room for a long and storied path, Valentine is somehow a jolt and a lovebuzz all at once.

Katie Crutchfield

https://snailmailbaltimore.bandcamp.com/releases

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