TAKE BACK THURSDAY - SNAIL MAIL’S “LUSH” LP
While reminiscing about (and living through) summer days, Snail Mail’s 2018 debut full-length album Lush comes to mind. The album is one of the first indie albums I listened to in full and one that can instantly conjure up a specific feeling and mood for me. One that consists of green grass sparkling in 4:00 sun and all four windows of my car down.
Lindsey Jordan’s solo indie rock project Snail Mail released its debut EP Habit in 2016. The songs on it were individually very good for a debut project but it was only seven songs short which (sometimes) makes it hard for the theme and lyricism of an album to stay concise. Lush gives Jordan the album where she could.
The intro simply titled “Intro” opens with a reverbed guitar strum and Jordan singing, “Go / Get it all / Let ‘em watch / Let it fall.” She foreshadows the closing finale of the record towards the end of the intro, as she exclaims “Still bleeds the same / As it is / For you, anytime.” I personally love an album where different songs call back on each other like the theme of a novel. Second track, and one of my favorite indie rock tracks of all time, “Pristine” is a glimmering one supported equally between Jordan’s lyricism, her vocals and the insanely catchy guitar riff opener.
The record bounces between themes of heartbreak, longing and summertime. “Heat Wave” reminisces on all three just in the intro. Jordan admits, “Heat wave, nothing to do / Woke up in my clothes having dreamt of you.” Her voice throughout the album is perfectly on-par with the sounds of her guitar tracks and other production choices. Sometimes, it crackles with emotion. “Stick” is a more polished version of a song from Habit, building up throughout the verses and choruses until the outro where Jordan finishes with belting, “Who’s happy alone / Even when it doesn’t make sense.”
“Let’s Find an Out” is a bubbly song with minimal production apart from a breezy guitar track that touches on “finding an out” of a certain situation to begin a completely new one. “Golden Dream” feels like the song on the record where Jordan captures the feeling of summer the best. With distorted guitar riffs in between verses and light guitar and drums in the verses, the track is summer encapsulated into a song.
Closer “Anytime” extends the intro song and brings it to an almost five minute-long track. Jordan extends the lyrics and makes it a song about acceptance. Some of my favorite lines in any song come from the end of “Anytime,” where she sings, “And I’m not in love with your absence / ‘Cause I’ve fallen so hard for the space.” It ties together the themes of the album so well and the production is not too loud over Jordan’s voice so you could hear every word she sings.
Part of what might make this album so special to me is that Lindsey Jordan was seventeen at the time of its release. I had heard “Pristine” at around that age which led me to listening to the whole album.
It holds a special place in my life for being one of the introductions to the world of music that I cherish so much now. Snail Mail’s sophomore album Valentine came out in 2021 and would continue my love for Jordan’s music as I grew through my teenage years and now newly into my twenties.