Jordana

Jordana

Classical Notions Of Happiness

Grand Jury

***For 19-year-old JORDANA NYE, kaleidoscopic bedroom pop songs aren’t merely outlets for observations, but ways to endure and embrace turbulence. Listeners will hear in full when she re-releases her treasured debut album Classical Notions of Happiness with three brand-new songs. Growing up in North Beach, Maryland, Jordana was surrounded by music in the most devout sense of the word. Her father, an organ player at the local church, encouraged her to learn piano from a young age. Instead, she found herself drawn to the violin, which she played for years before eventually switching to guitar. Classical Notions of Happiness is the culmination of a decade of practice and a slow delve into the expanses of SoundCloud. The album opens on “Remembering U,” an undulating recollection of a high school principal-mandated moment of silence for a friend she lost to suicide. That tremendous loss—not just of a friend, but of the youthful notion that things will always be okay—informs the ebb and flow of Classical Notions of Happiness. Daydreams blur with reality, watercolor melodies ooze into internal monologues and observations, and amid all of the record’s conflicting emotions, Jordana makes certain that there’s something to sway to.