Jamila Woods has readied a new album called Water Made Us, which is due out on October 13th via Jagjaguwar. The lead single, “Tiny Garden,” along with its accompanying video, is out now.
The title of Water Made Us references Toni Morrison, who once said that “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” The album maintains Woods’ interest in Black feminism, but, as a result of being written in the midst of quarantine, is more self-reflective than her past works.
“Water Made Us feels like the most personal and vulnerable piece of art I’ve ever made. I love creating from source material, diving deep into a subject and extrapolating from what I discover,” Woods said in a statement. “We sat in the house for two years and I became my own source material. Shout out to the therapists, the astrologers, the family members and friends who listened, who helped me process and transform my journaled thoughts and questions into this body of work. I hope it feels like a playlist that carries you through the life cycle of a relationship, whatever stage of the journey your heart may be in.”
In “Tiny Garden,” which features duendita, Woods examines the way she shows love — not through a big production with butterflies and fireworks, but with an intentional series of actions, the way you’d tend to your plants. The single “is a song about the way my heart works, the slow and steady way I love,” the writer explained.
In the accompanying video, which Woods self-directed, “I wanted to create a visual representation of how I often feel in relationships, like I’m having huge feelings that I end up expressing in small specific ways. The video takes place across two landscapes, the reality of a shared apartment at the tail end of winter and an imagined ‘heartspace’ where everything is lush and green. I worked with my friend and frequent collaborator Po Chop on the choreography, so that the movement becomes the key to merging these two worlds — everywhere I dance, something grows.”
Pre-orders for Water Made Us are ongoing. The album follows Woods’ 2019 record LEGACY! LEGACY!, one of the best of the year. Since then, she’s since shared singles like “Sula (Paperback)” and “Boundaries.”
Water Made Us Artwork:
Water Made Us Tracklist:
01. Bugs
02. Tiny Garden (feat. duendita)
03. Practice (feat. Saba)
04. Let the cards fall
05. Send A Dove
06. Wreckage Room
07. Thermostat (feat. Peter CottonTale)
08. Out of the doldrums
09. Wolfsheep
10. I Miss All My Exes
11. Backburner
12. libra intuition
13. Boomerang
14. Still
15. the best thing
16. Good News
17. Headfirst
