Jamila Woods announces new album Water Made Us

Jamila Woods has announced her third studio LP. Water Made Us, the follow-up to 2019’s LEGACY! LEGACY!, is scheduled for an October 13 release via Jagjaguwar. It’s lead single, “Tiny Garden,” is out today (July 11).

On the new track, the Chicago singer-songwriter-poet-playwright is joined by Queens’ own duendita, one of only three featured guests on the 18-track project — the others are Saba and Peter CottonTale, both fellow Chicago natives. Over a warm, slowly building instrumental from Wynne Bennett, Woods and duendita describe emotions that are small but important, ones that should be tended and nurtured. “It’s not gonna be a big production / It’s not butterflies or fireworks,” Woods sings on the hook. “Said it’s gonna be a tiny garden / But I’ll feed it every day.”

The song comes with beautifully shot, self-directed visuals. “‘Tiny Garden’ is a song about the way my heart works, the slow and steady way I love,” Woods writes in a press statement. “In my directorial debut 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 is watered, something grows.” Watch the clip below.

“Water Made Us feels like the most personal and vulnerable piece of art I’ve ever made,” Woods continues in the press release. “I love creating from source material, diving deep into a subject and extrapolating from what I discover. We sat in the house for 2 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.”

Stream “Tiny Garden” below, and scroll down for Water Made Us’ cover art and tracklist.