If you listen to the title cut of the latest album from Matador recording artist Snail Mail, you will feel like you are in the early days of the festival. Billy Corgan might have scripted the opening and chorus of the song.
In the D.C. suburbs, Lindsey Jordan was known as Snail Mail. She is a woman. Surely, she’s not a fan of Billy Corgan. You don’t have to ask anyways.
She had a Smashing Pumpkins tattoo. She is holding the camera up.
The fruits of a modern singer-songwriter movement, a string of masterful recordings by young, mostly female artists who grew up listening to their parents’ records, and who value songcraft above all, will be heard when you spin the latest albums by Lindsey or Marissa Nadler or Shannon Lay.
Lana Del Ray, Prince and the Church influenced Lindsey Jordan. Shannon Lay, a former punk rocker from California, drew inspiration from the likes of the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys before she discovered the Velvet Underground. A self-taught finger-picker from Boston, Nadler went from Madonna and Abbey Road to the likes of Bob Dylan and Simone.
So what is a singer-songwriter? Dylan, the Beatles and others pioneered the practice of putting music they wrote and sang in full albums, bucking tradition that had separated writer from performer and padded long-players with endless, redundant covers. A generation of artists in the 1960s and early 1970s who wrote observational, confessional songs on acoustic guitars and pianos and presented them on albums with little adornment were inspired by their work. The movement’s peak was probably marked by the Blue album by Joni Mitchell.
Songcraft burned on through successive generations of artists, from the guttural growl of Tom Waits to the heartbreaking waltzes of Elliott Smith to the spine-chilling strings that close “Purple”.
All of those artists and many others can be found in the best of the new singer-songwriters. After decades of music-industry Guyville, a sea change that would appreciate, they are mostly women, a refreshing trend.
There are six outstanding albums from the new singer-songwriter movement. All these artists were blessed with the gift of time when three of them were recorded and released.
Valentine, Snail Mail (2021)
Lindsey Jordan started recording and releasing music when she was in high school. She has a second long-player.
The title track is as good as any Smashing Pumpkins single. It’s her triumphal concert opener, the kind of song that will still be playing on the subway ride home.
A warm power-pop vibe is what the album proceeds on. Lindsey has an open B string on her Jazzmaster. The song is named “forever” and is a tribute to Andy Summers, Prince and Avalon- era Roxy Music. Lindsey’s voice is warm and ragged as she embraces and envelopes the listener.
Lindsey moved into the big leagues. She says that the Pandemic gave her time to breathe.
I had not done any writing on him. She had three songs at the time. One of the best albums of the year was produced by her.
Geist, Shannon Lay (2021)
Shannon Lay has five albums in and her email address is on her website. If the Pandemic gave Lindsey Jordan some breathing room, it inspired Shannon.
She felt called to explain what she was going through because she felt so many other people were going through it as well. There were many people who needed to hear this message.
Some of the most beautiful folk guitar figures have been put on vinyl. The opener is called “Rare to Wake” and warms the soul like a sunrise. Shannon’s dreamy, double-tracked lilt glides atop a hypnotic, cycling fingerstyle riff on her Crdoba acoustic, anchored to a simple jazz bass and adorned with splashes of Fender Rhodes keyboard.
The second track, “A Thread to Find,” is a breathtaking melody atop a simple guitar pattern that is animated with looping, Eno-style keyboard runs and a dash of Nick Drake strings.
The loveliest musical statement on the album might be the title track. Shannon has a guitar that sounds like a full step to C.
The Path of the Clouds, Marissa Nadler (2021)
Nadler has been making records for over 20 years. Her most accomplished album may be The Path of the Clouds.
Shannon and Lindsey had extra time when the Pandemic hit.
She says that she recorded most of the record by herself at home. I decided to do everything again after hearing how things were coming along.
Clouds has a lot of layers of music and vocals. The song, “If I Could Breathe Underwater,” began as a fingerpick song in an open tuning. She says she felt it was time to try something else because she had so many fingerpicked songs. The song emerged as a multi-layer masterpiece, showcasing the gorgeous, breathy vocals of Marissa atop a synthesizer and gently marching drums. The title track is dreamy and proceeds at a Quaalude-like pace.
Pink Floyd was her favorite band when she was a child.
Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood (2019)
Weyes Blood is Natalie Mering, who was raised in Pennsylvania. Like Shannon, Natalie followed a musical path, dabbling in noise rock and once fronting a band called Satanized to the delight of her parents.
Natalie celebrates the lost soft-rock splendors of Karen Carpenter, David Gates and Harry Nilsson on her fourth album. From the funereal title to the artist’s name to the cover art of Natalie, everything about Titanic Rising screams hard. In that portentous pre-covid year, you will not find a more listenable album.
Fifty years ago, when I had the whole world gently wrapped around me, the eerie piano chords that open “A Lot’s Gonna Change” tug at the listener. This is a work of songcraft, from Natalie’s contralto to the lush orchestrations and the ethereal piano.
“Andromeda” sounds like a lost 70s classic, like George Harrison’s slide guitar and Carly Simon’s vocals. It sounds like an outtake from Sergeant Pepper.
Reward, Cate Le Bon (2019)
Her first song was sung in Welsh. Her output was both entertaining and challenges. Gruff Rhys, singer for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals, said that one of Cate’s early singles was about a fight over the keyboard.
Reward may be her masterpiece. A symphony of counterpoint unfolds as the first song, almost like a Philip Glass scale. The crowd at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. received the song as her opening number in the summer of 2019). Someone in the back cried out, “You’re amazing” at the end.
Gruff thinks that Cate Le Bon on Reward sounds like the chanteuse from the Velvet Underground and that she is creating music that playfully pushes the boundaries of pop. The song sails along on guitar lines and piano strings. The Japanese pop song “Home to You” sounds like it comes from a parallel universe.
Song for Our Daughter, Laura Marling (2020)
Laura Marling is thirty-two and has been making music in Britain for half her life. Laura has released a number of albums that have been well received. Her seventh album, Song for Our Daughter, is the best in her catalog.
The opener could have dominated the radio in 1973. The song opens with an acoustic guitar figure that is similar to the ones Crosby, Stills and Nash used to play. Laura’s stately melody soars atop steel- guitar flourishes and tumbling drums, as it settles into a warm 70s pop grooves. The second song, “Held Down,” opens with a lovely rising melody that is answered by a cascading three-part harmony. The title track contains painful lessons for the next generation.