Snail Mail Announces Ricochet, First Album in Five Years

Lindsey Jordan is back. Snail Mail has announced Ricochet, the follow-up to 2021's Valentine, and it arrives March 27 via Matador Records. The 11-track album is Jordan's first full-length in five years — and if the lead single 'Dead End' is anything to go by, she's been doing a lot of living in the meantime.

'Dead End' is precisely the kind of song Snail Mail does better than almost anyone: big guitar energy, a melody that sounds both inevitable and slightly broken, lyrics that sit right at the edge of oversharing without quite spilling over. Jordan co-directed the video with Elsie Richter, and it reportedly involved fireworks, rural North Carolina, and the police. That tracks.

In a press statement, Jordan said: 'We shot the video for Dead End in random places all around rural North Carolina between the hours of 5pm and 4am on one of the coldest nights of my life. The goal was to be inconspicuous with the fireworks, but someone called the cops on us.' Perfect.

The full tracklist for Ricochet runs 11 songs, including a title track, plus entries called 'Tractor Beam,' 'My Maker,' 'Agony Freak,' and 'Butterfly.' That's either a very dark record or a very cathartic one. Possibly both.

Valentine was one of the best breakup records of 2021 and one of the year's best full stop. Five years is a long time. March 27 can't come soon enough.