Jordana Announces Studio Debut Face the Wall, Shares “Catch My Drift” Video
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Jordana Nye, who performs and records as Jordana, has announced her sophomore album and official studio debut. The 21-year-old indie-rock auteur performs every instrument on Face the Wall (May 20, Grand Jury), which she co-produced alongside Cameron Hale. Lead single “Catch My Drift” is out now alongside a music video.
Face the Wall’s songs find Jordana “coming to terms with everything, big and small, from pandemic isolation and depression to breakups to veganism to how her complicated relationship with faith is what ultimately led her to music, despite that faith being at odds with her sexuality and own belief system,” per a press release.
“The album title has a few meanings to me,” Jordana explains in a statement. “Mostly, it’s about not giving up. The wall can be anything in your way. The album is a sort of reminder to myself that I have to face those things, and I can’t take the easy route and turn around.”
Jordana self-released her debut album Classical Notions of Happiness, a collection of her early material, in 2019, catching Grand Jury’s ear in the process—the label signed her and re-released the album in 2020. She put out her Something to Say EP that same year, later combining it with another EP, …To You, to form her second full-length, Something to Say to You. So there’s an argument to be made that Face the Wall is her proper debut album.
Our first preview of that album, “Catch My Drift” is part dream-pop, part pop-punk and all irresistible hooks. Over a syrupy riff, Jordana wonders, “Do you catch my drift? / Are you picking up what I’m putting down?” She sings like she’s literally holding her breath, waiting to find out if her feelings will bring her any fulfillment. The song’s propulsive choruses give us our answer: “Oh no / I hate to say I told you so / You know / It’s a waste, just let it go,” she sings, wrapping her pain in strength as she concludes, “It’s no mistake to be alone.”
“This song is about going back and forth with your feelings for someone when they make you question whether they are even reciprocated,” Jordana explains. “The song is about realizing you shouldn’t be emotionally dependent on anybody, and that it’s just a waste of energy.”
Fresh off a sold-out tour with TV Girl—with whom she collaborated on the 2021 EP Summer’s Over—Jordana has announced a spring tour in support of Face the Wall, including both headlining shows and performances supporting Wallows. Ticket info is right here.
