Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan had the kind of meteoric rise that most artists dream of back when her debut album, Lush came out in 2018. Now, she’s just released her sophomore effort, Valentine, and along with the record itself made her very first late night appearance. Performing the title track off the new album for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jordan performed alongside hearts made of roses and a balloon backdrop while fronting her all-male backing band.
Uproxx critic Steven Hyden considers Valentine to be a big step forward for Jordan, and a lesson in boundary-setting too. “Fans of Lush responded to Jordan’s eagerness to expose herself in her music,” he wrote in his review of the record. Particularly as a young woman with an uncommon ability to articulate feelings most people her age struggle to fully grapple with. On Valentine, she’s just as honest and insightful, it’s just that the message is, “Step off, please.” The “reaction to indie fame” aspect of Valentine is only one part of the story. This is also Jordan’s “level up” record, the ambitious follow-up to the ingratiating but relatively simple Lush. On the first record, she focused almost solely on guitar, to the point of aligning herself with indie “shredders” like Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn. But on Valentine, she’s expanded her musical palate significantly, layering her songs with keyboards and strings in a manner consistent with “mature sophomore efforts” from young indie phenoms.”
Check out her late night performance up above.