Snail Mail - Lush

Rating:

‘Lush’ has an instant familiarity and candour that should make a serious star out of Lindsey Jordan.

The ‘coming-of-age’ debut is a trope tried and tested through indie history, but it takes a special sort of soul to get it exactly right. With her head in the stars but her feet very much on the ground, Lindsey Jordan makes an early play for record of the year with her first full-length as Snail Mail.

Whether upbeat or downtrodden, the guitar work throughout the record is nothing short of magnificent, knowing when to pare back and when to go for gold. At just 18, Jordan has already amassed 13 years of experience in her instrument, and ‘Lush’ is an undisputed love letter to her six-stringer, a reassuring constant in the resulting stories of adolescent love, house-party heartbreak and self-esteem wobbles. ‘Speaking Terms’ has plenty to keep shoegaze fans happy with it’s skilfully meandering hook, while the soaring electrics of ‘Heat Wave’ lends it a momentum that makes it a dead set for a colossal live finale, recalling Bombay Bicycle Club in it’s dizzy, youthful energy.

Equal parts glossy and homemade, ‘Lush’ has an instant familiarity and candour that should make a serious star out of Jordan. She writes with the knowledge that things have to get worse before they get better, and that there is comfort in growing wiser through even your most regrettable of experiences. It all comes together to produce indie pop of the highest order, coloured by a definite hue of blue that far from weighing the record down, gives it a sense of catharsis. After all, as 'Pristine' asks: “is there any better feeling than coming clean?” Jenessa Williams