Snail Mail is back, and it’s time to celebrate. Over three years after her wise-beyond-her-age debut, Lush, Lindsey Jordan announced her second album, Valentine, out November 5. And leading off the project is the massive title track — the biggest-sounding song Jordan has ever released as Snail Mail, with a stadium-sized chorus, but still featuring her signature sharply personal lyrics. “Fuck being remembered,†she declares in the song, inspired by a breakup. “I think I was made for you.†“Valentine†comes with an equally cinematic video, set at a period drama–esque party that turns bloody as Jordan finds the woman she’s after making out with someone else. “Watching a few perverse images in my head metamorphose into this gorgeous storyline and eventually into a tangible visual was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,†Jordan said in a statement on the video, directed by Josh Coll. And as if a huge song and accompanying huge music video weren’t enough, Snail Mail has also announced a huge, 65-date tour, kicking off in November 2021 and stretching through May 2022.
Valentine — written alone throughout 2019 and 2020 and recorded in early 2021 alongside co-producer Brad Cook — follows both a breakup and a stint in rehab for Jordan. “I wanted to take as much time as possible with this record to make sure I was happy with every detail before unleashing it unto y’all,†continued Jordan, now 22. “Referring to the process as the deepest level of catharsis and therapy I have ever experienced would be a huge understatement. Valentine is my child!†The album also comes with an essay written by Jordan’s close friend Katie Crutchfield, of Waxahatchee (who previously referenced her friendship with Jordan on her own 2020 song “Witchesâ€). “On Valentine, we are taken 100 miles deeper into the world Jordan created with Lush,†Crutchfield wrote, “led through passageways and around dark corners, landing somewhere we never dreamed existed.â€