Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Snail Mail

Lush

Label: Matador Records Release Date: 08/06/2018

105641
thats-incentive by Joe Goggins June 8th, 2018

Most of the writing around Snail Mail is going to make reference to Lindsey Jordan’s age as a matter of course.

You can understand the thinking behind that; after all, most 18-year-olds are not signed to Matador Records. That said, Kate Bush wrote ‘The Man with the Child in His Eyes’ when she was 13, and Mary Shelley was 19 when she finished Frankenstein; it is not wildly unusual for young women to demonstrate remarkable creative tendencies before they’ve hit 20. Jordan’s contemporaries when it comes to the kind of carefully-constructed confessionals she deals in include her label-mate, Julien Baker, as well as Phoebe Bridgers, neither of whom are exactly long in the tooth.

With Jordan - who, for all intents and purposes, is Snail Mail - there’s something a little different, though. In interviews, she’s emanated the sort of unruffled cool that suggests she’s very much taking all of this in her stride - it feels genuinely unmeasured, in contrast to Baker’s earnestness or Bridgers’ dry cynicism. Like those peers, the attitude seeps into the music; Lush, Jordan’s first full-length release, is the sort of remarkably assured debut that doesn’t come around all that often. Most artists don’t hit their stride until they get to their second or third LP - if they even get there at all. Jordan already sounds as if she knows precisely what she’s doing.

That’s evident as much in the musicianship on Lush as it is in her writing; the guitar work is consistently skilful, the doing of somebody well-versed in how to use it to craft melodies. ‘Pristine’ is the title of the opening track proper but could just as easily serve as a concise description of how the whole record sounds; the tone of the guitars is clean as a whistle and Jordan’s vocals are clear as a bell. Comparisons will continue to be drawn with Baker and Bridgers but the recent album that Jordan owes the biggest stylistic debt to is I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, last year’s third effort by Chastity Belt that flew under far more radars than it should have.

That record saw the Seattle band move away from their tongue-in-cheek roots and turn in something more honest, and it was reflected in the purity of its sound, in the lack of distortion and reverb that had previously served as a kind of messy cloak for their insecurities. So much of Lush’s confidence is wrapped up in that same kind of dynamic; Jordan’s quite happily given herself no hiding place, and nor does she need one. It only serves to enhance the emotional resonance of her lyrics, too.

On ‘Pristine’, she sings “is there any better feeling than coming clean?”, and sets the tone in the process; she sounds like somebody who relishes the catharsis that emotional honesty brings with it. That much is clear on ‘Heat Wave’, too, as she eschews the idea of escapism in favour of dealing with her feelings head on. You’re listening to Jordan grow on Lush at the same time as you’re wondering how much room she’s left herself to develop creatively; she’s already sounding polished and bracingly mature.

![105641](http://dis.resized.images.s3.amazonaws.com/540x310/105641.jpeg)
  • 8
    Joe Goggins's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees


  • A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash



Left-arrow

Kanye West

ye

Mobback
105639
105643

Angélique Kidjo

Remain in Light

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136

    Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
  • Festival Review


    25 years of SPOT Festival: DiS Picks Its Best 11

  • 106134
MORE


GREATEST HITS

    feature


    Carnivals of the Grotesque: Nick Cave on Dig, L...

  • 33717
  • review


    Kate Nash - Made Of Bricks

  • 26283

    DiScover


    DiScover: Lykke Li

  • 36032
  • feature


    Discography reassessed: Bright Eyes in perspective

  • 77693

    feature


    Portishead discuss Third

  • 34958
  • Column


    DiS does Singles: Johnny Borrell - Erotic Lette...

  • 91479

    feature


    "The Strokes fucking suck!" - DiS meets Steve A...

  • 59630
  • feature


    No Surprises? 15 Classic Albums of 15 Years Ago

  • 82815
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2023 DROWNED IN SOUND