Snail Mail

Lindsey Jordan released her debut EP as Snail Mail—2016’s Habit—before even graduating from high school. Her noisy, emotionally acute indie rock got her signed to New York label Matador, which introduced the world to such like-minded acts as Helium and Liz Phair in the ’90s. But Jordan builds upon their legacy with a distinctly Gen Z perspective: born in 1999 in Ellicott City, Maryland, she penned 2018’s Lush in her childhood bedroom in Baltimore, emerging with one of the decade’s most roundly acclaimed debut albums. No wonder she returned there during lockdown to work on a follow-up. “I know for a fact I can write good songs in this room,” she told Apple Music. The resulting Valentine, from 2021, introduced shorter, more pointed songs laced with newfound atmosphere. Sweet strings and synths counter Jordan’s acidic lyrics, which prove as devastatingly personal as ever.