Snail Mail

CL Critic Matthew Warhol Recommends: Your favorite indie artist has graduated from the bedroom and gone into the studio. After cutting her teeth with lofi songs about love and self-worth, Snail Mail has added synths, samples, and strings to her palette, while still writing songs about love and self-worth. The components you loved about 2018’s Lush are still Lindsey Jordan aka Snail Mail’s backbone, but on Valentine, she’s matured and broadened her scope. With life experience comes development, and we are seeing the development of Snail Mail in real time—Jordan had just graduated high school when she completed her debut. Listening to Snail Mail reminds me of car rides with mom, hearing the female icons of the 90s like Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, and Meredith Brooks. The 90s are alive in indie rock, and Snail Mail is is these influences and building where they left off. — MW