Lindsey Jordan was eighteen when she made Lush, Snail Mail's 2018 debut. It is, without qualification, a great record — not a great debut, not a great record for someone her age, just a great record, full stop. Valentine in 2021 confirmed the initial judgment. Ricochet, arriving five years after Valentine, is the first Snail Mail album that makes you wonder whether Jordan is holding something back.
The problem isn't the songwriting, which remains clean and precise. Jordan knows how to structure a song. She knows how to place a melody where it hurts. The title track closes the album with a string arrangement that's legitimately gorgeous. 'Dead End,' the lead single, has the big-guitar energy and the slightly broken melody that defines the best Snail Mail work. These are not failures.
The problem is that Ricochet often feels like Snail Mail-as-concept — the surface textures without the emotional depth. The production washes out dynamics that Jordan's voice could anchor. The na-na-na and yeah-yeah codas on multiple songs sound like placeholders that got recorded. There's a song called 'Nowhere' that hints at a fear of being replaced, of relevance slipping — 'So much potential out there / Always gonna be someone to take your place' — and then doesn't follow through on the idea. Jordan raises the theme and sets it down before it gets uncomfortable.
Maybe that's the point. Maybe Ricochet is exactly what Jordan wants it to be: a record that takes some risks with form while retreating from emotional exposure. The tension between those impulses is real and sometimes generative, but it doesn't consistently make for compelling listening.
The best thing about Ricochet is that it exists. Jordan is making music, touring, releasing albums. Not every record in a career has to be a revelation. Ricochet is a good album that rarely touches the highs of what came before. From most artists, that's fine. From Lindsey Jordan, it stings a little. Grade: B-.