After giving us a taste of HEAVN last week via a stream of her "LSD" collaboration with Chance the Rapper, Chicago R&B singer Jamila Woods has now floated us the project in full.
As previously reported, the 14-song album finds Woods collaborating with a number of Windy City notables, including Donnie Trumpet, rapper Saba and producer Peter Cottontale. The collection finds Woods mixing schoolyard rhymes with sociopolitical critique on police-questioning "VRY BLK" ("you're serving and protecting, and stealing babies' lives").
She also talks about modern-day lynching above a thunderous drum beat and fuzz-freaked melodies on "BLK Girl Soldier," tries to find guidance on the psychedelically swirled "Breadcrumbs," and works a lonely vocal melody over the jazz guitar and breaks-loaded ballad "Lately."
Woods had this to say about the album in a statement:
HEAVN is about black girlhood, about Chicago, about the people we miss who have gone on to prepare a place for us somewhere else, about the city/world we aspire to live in. I hope this album encourages listeners to love themselves and love each other. For black and brown people, caring for ourselves and each other is not a neutral act. It is a necessary and radical part of the struggle to create a more just society. Our healing and survival are essential to the fight.
You'll find all of HEAVN streaming below, while a download is available here.
As previously reported, the 14-song album finds Woods collaborating with a number of Windy City notables, including Donnie Trumpet, rapper Saba and producer Peter Cottontale. The collection finds Woods mixing schoolyard rhymes with sociopolitical critique on police-questioning "VRY BLK" ("you're serving and protecting, and stealing babies' lives").
She also talks about modern-day lynching above a thunderous drum beat and fuzz-freaked melodies on "BLK Girl Soldier," tries to find guidance on the psychedelically swirled "Breadcrumbs," and works a lonely vocal melody over the jazz guitar and breaks-loaded ballad "Lately."
Woods had this to say about the album in a statement:
HEAVN is about black girlhood, about Chicago, about the people we miss who have gone on to prepare a place for us somewhere else, about the city/world we aspire to live in. I hope this album encourages listeners to love themselves and love each other. For black and brown people, caring for ourselves and each other is not a neutral act. It is a necessary and radical part of the struggle to create a more just society. Our healing and survival are essential to the fight.
You'll find all of HEAVN streaming below, while a download is available here.
