Snail Mail’s ‘Ricochet’ arrives carrying the weight of genuine change. Coming five years after Lindsey Jordan’s previous full length ‘Valentine’, this collection of songs was written after a move from New York to North Carolina and shaped in the wake of Jordan’s vocal polyp surgery and the speech therapy that followed.
Recorded with Aron Kobayashi Ritch across both North Carolina and Brooklyn, there’s a clarity to ‘Ricochet’, finding Jordan writing with a steadier hand than before. Where Snail Mail’s previous records have often zeroed in on the immediate aftermath of young love, desire and heartbreak, these 11 songs widen the lens, grappling with time, mortality, dissociation and the hopelessness of watching things slowly slip from your grasp.
Draping her musings on life’s anxieties in a luminous ‘90s alt-rock shimmer, lead single Dead End is a grunge-infused reflection on adolescence filled with swirling guitars and shimmering vocals.
That same nostalgic spirit surges through Hell, while My Maker leans into the sparkly alt-pop stylings that are now very familiar in Snail Mail’s universe.
But while there are plenty of moments that refine the project’s existing sound, ‘Ricochet’ truly shines when Jordan is pushing things into a more expansive space.
The string arrangements on Light On Our Feet transform a tender ode to growing older into something utterly heartbreaking. Elsewhere, the gorgeous push-and-pull of Agony Freak, the subtle grandeur of Cruise, and the euphoric orchestral crescendo of the album’s title track give the album a cinematic edge.
For all its vast themes, what makes ‘Ricochet’ work so well is that it never loses the intimate ache woven into every note of Snail Mail’s previous works. Thoughtful and sonically ambitious in a way that feels natural, it settles into a middle ground between the immediacy of Jordan’s 2018 debut ‘Lush’ and the bruised grandeur of ‘Valentine’. The result is an album that may not have you in a chokehold on your first listen, but with a little patience, it could well prove to be Jordan’s finest offering to date.
Snail Mail Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu June 25 2026 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
Fri June 26 2026 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
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