Snail Mail: Lush [MATADOR]

Why you'll love it

This Matador LP comes in a glossy sleeve with a printed inner sleeve and a download coupon. Lush was nominated for Best Rock Album at the Libera Awards and has since been counted among the best indie rock albums of the 2010s.

This edition

• Download card included
• Printed inner sleeve
• Glossy jacket
• Lyrics included

About the album

Lindsey Jordan had a busy couple of years before Lush. Between 2016 and 2018 she put out her Habit EP, signed to Matador, toured the US and Europe, and graduated high school, which is a fairly packed timetable for anyone, let alone someone writing a debut album in the gaps.

She wrote about 30 songs for it, finishing guitar parts first, then melodies, then lyrics, and stepping away for a month between stages to make sure each one still felt special. Jake Aron produced, chosen for his pop sensibilities, and her guitar sits right at the centre. "Pristine" is the big, aching opener, "Heat Wave" crashes and glows, and "Speaking Terms" and "Let's Find an Out" let those hazy chords sing before her voice even comes in. AllMusic said her delivery often sounds like a private, handwritten letter, and Paste called it a collection of lucid guitar-pop songs.

It set her up as one of the most talked-about young songwriters in American indie, and it still sounds as clear-eyed as the day it arrived. She was barely out of school when she made it. Not bad for homework.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Matador (cat# OLE-1179-1), the 2018 album.