Eleni Mandell

Los Angeles' Eleni Mandell sings and writes in a style that fuses vintage outsider cool with contemporary settings and ironic wit. She introduced her smoky, punk- and jazz-detailed noir sketches on Wishbone in 1998. The songwriter later paid tribute to country classics on her fourth album, 2003's Country for True Lovers, before re-embracing her trademark sound on the next year's Afternoon. While also a member of indie rock group the Grabs and the Andrews Sisters-influenced the Living Sisters, her solo output in the 2010s included albums such as her Yep Roc debut, 2012's I Can See the Future, and 2019's Wake Up Again, which was informed by her time teaching songwriting in a women's prison. After taking a break from the music industry to begin teaching full-time, she returned in 2026 with her 12th album, Tailspin.