RADAR – Lively Premonition by Jordana

Indie pop artist Jordana rose to recognition in 2021 for her collaboration with hit indie artist TV Girl. Jordana has mostly been known for her work with TV Girl, but on October 18th, 2024, she released a brand new solo album titled Lively Premonition. In an interview with the online pop culture magazine Consequence, Jordana describes that her songwriting and instrumentation style has shifted since her earlier work. So, how do these changes come to fruition in the album? Well I’ve listened through and now I’m here to give you the breakdown of Lively Premonition and put it on your radar.

Tracklist:

• We Get By

• Like A Dog

• Heart You Hold

• This Is How I Know

• Multitudes Of Mystery

• Raver Girl

• Wrong Love

• Anything For You

• The One I Knew
• Your Story’s End

My Picks

Three Standout Tracks: Like A Dog, Raver Girl, & Wrong Love 

Favorite Lyric: “I could be there to protect you

If you hurt me I would never neglect you

You could leave me for long and I’d keep hanging on

You can tell me you love me back any day you want” – Like A Dog, 0:55

Least Favorite Track: Multitudes Of Mystery

Best Storytelling: Heart You Hold

Best Instrumentation: We Get By

Who is Jordana?

Jordana Nye (no relation to Bill Nye) is a 24 year-old indie pop musician. She saw huge success on her collaboration EP Summer’s Over with TV Girl. A few songs from the 2021 release even went viral, such as Better In The Dark. This led many TV Girl fans to wonder about the lesser known co-creator of the album. Jordana began her music career at just 18 years old with the release of Classical Notations of Happiness, a 13-track album. She garnered enough attention to be signed to the Grand Jury record label. Nye’s style is reminiscent of a lot of modern folk artists, incorporating orchestral elements, soft “floaty” vocals, strong acoustics, etc. However her work takes influences from the alternative pop/rock scene with use of synthesizer, sampling, and more complex melodies. Her voice is best described as ethereal, which works well, but on occasion her voice feels more secondary to the instrumentals and that’s really a shame because it makes it easy to miss her clever lyricism.

What is Lively Premonition about?

The artist herself describes the project as, “The cycle of love, heartbreak, lust, party-going, self-acceptance, connections, and rediscovering yourself over and over again.” At its core, Lively Premonition is a love story. Jordana describes a complicated relationship with a lover. The album begins with sheer infatuation, the first 2 tracks including lines like, “And on the sea we share the tides; And best of all we never fight.” This record jumps from topic to topic jarringly fast. In tracks 3-6 we experience Jordana’s perspective on growing up, self-discovery, experimental drugs, and a mysterious encounter at a disco. Wrong Love brings the theme of complicated romance to a slow climax. This transitions into Anything For You, the breakup. The One I Knew is… also a breakup song. And so is Your Story’s End. 

Summary

Jordana’s Lively Premonition showcases her songwriting and producing talent, but it suffers from poor pacing. The album does make an effective love story to get invested in. It paints a picture of a burning passion fizzling out in a burst of fireworks. However, the story either takes too many detours or doesn’t give the listener a break. Lively Premonition is a fascinating listen instrumentally, she leans into more acoustic instrumentals but isn’t afraid to get weird and experimental such as in Multitudes Of Mystery. 

In conclusion, Lively Premonition is an evolution of Jordana’s style and writing and a showcase of her versatility. The love story at the heart of the album has heartbreaking moments even if it struggles with timing those moments. It isn’t perfect, but it is very far from bad.