Snail Mail – Ricochet
Snail Mail’s third album combines honest alt-rock with orchestral flourishes
Five years after her last album, Snail Mail’s Ricochet echoes the tender vocals and direct lyricism of previous albums, sharpened with shoegaze-style guitars and hushed strings. Existential, wrestling with broken relationships and fleeting mortality, Ricochet teeters between self-reflection and self-criticism. The hazy romantic glow of opener Tractor Beam fades into matter-of-fact confessions: ‘You can cast my letters to the sea / But you can’t find anyone else like me’, while on Hell, Lindsey Jordan scrutinises herself alongside past relationships, criticising destructive tendencies: ‘Alienate your friends / Cause they're just a means to an end’.
Blunt colloquialisms can detract from philosophical musings, and sunny chords sometimes overshadow introspective lyrics. My Maker demands deeper concentration when she imagines ‘Battalions of angels / Marching from on high / Say, “above us, it’s just sky”’. Orchestral touches seamlessly complement fiery emotions; the title track’s darting strings mimic restless anxieties, bleeding into a drowning crescendo. Cruise fuses gentle guitars with creeping cellos, with horns softly saluting. Agony Freak’s tantalising, meandering riffs imitate a push-and-pull battle with sadness. Ricochet revisits Snail Mail’s familiar gentle honesty, while welcoming a grunge-infused edge that comes with confronting heavier emotions.
Listen to: Agony Freak, Hell, Cruise