Jordana & TV Girl - Jump the Turnstile

The three coolest interactions with musical acts I had on Twitter were, in no particular order: 1.) Portugal the Man (way before their “Feel it Still” fame) followed me, for some reason, I assume some kind of confusion on their part. 2.) Sir Mix-a-lot replied to a Tweet I @’d him on about a bartending robot called “Sir Mix-a-bot” (the Seattle rapper didn’t like the idea of no overpours). 3.) Jordana replied (with an emoji) when I pointed out how great some of her pop songs were. Listen, I didn’t say they were impressive interactions. And I’ve long since abandoned Twitter/X, so those will remain my only even remotely cool interactions on that site.

Technically, “Jump the Turnstile” is by Jordana and TV Girl. I can’t speak that much about TV Girl, but Jordana? Jordana knows how to write fantastic pop jams. She will make another, solo appearance on 3-6-5 in the future surely, but today, let’s chat “Turnstile.” When you first hear it, it feels like a song you’ve already heard before. I don’t mean that in a bad way — it’s familiar, like the softest most comftorablest of your favoritest T-shirts.

A gentle beat lopes along, forming the spine and scaffolding of the song with beautiful strings/synths in the background, while what I’m assuming is a sample of someone saying “Jump the turnstile, never pay the toll” hustles around the periphery. In addition to writing catchy hooks, Jordana has a gift for lyrical precision, scribbling down lines like “It isn't fair when you pay the fare and he sends you back / You're left laying flat like a penny on the tracks.” The song isn’t a blockbuster, or an epic — it’s small, in the way the best favors and gestures can be. It’s a love song, a lament song, for the commuting set. I’ve had “Jump the Turnstile” on heavy rotation for the past three years and never grow tired of it. But I’m not gonna tweet about it.