There’s a new ABBA album out today for the first time in 40 years. Much to the chagrin of one of my co-workers I will not be writing about that even though she has been excitedly looking forward to it for several months. I highly doubt she knows this blog exists anyway. I will also not be writing about the new Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats album. I’ve come to the conclusion that I enjoy seeing Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats play live, but I don’t care that much just to sit around and listen to their music. I don’t turn it off if it comes on the radio or anything. I don’t hate it, but it’s not something I actively seek out to listen to. I much prefer Nathaniel Rateliff’s solo stuff.

Instead, I shall be talking about the new album, Valentine, by Snail Mail both because I like it a lot and also because she’s the hometown favorite of the new music out this week. She grew up in Ellicott City, Maryland which is outside of Baltimore for those of you reading who are unfamiliar with this area. So how could I not choose to write about the local girl. My local ice cream shop even has a new flavor they created in collaboration with her celebrating the new album.

Valentine is Lindsey Jordan, aka Snail Mail’s sophomore album. I actually don’t have a lot to say about other than that it’s a really great album from start to finish. Always impressive for a sophomore album, which are notoriously hard to make. It’s doubly impressive for someone so young who is definitely using this album to try and figure out who she is after growing up while touring her first album. The album ranges from more guitar heavy rock songs, to more synth influenced songs, to fairly spare songs. It’s hard to choose one song to represent the whole album, so I’m just going to go with the title track, “Valentine”, though I highly encourage you to go listen to the whole album.