Last time I talked to Dessa, I asked her about the shifting tenor of her new material. "When I look at your older albums and songs like 'Fighting Fish' and 'Dutch,'" I said, "and compare them to the tone I get from you now [...] I see the confident Dessa taking a step back. Do you think kickass Dessa will make a return in future music, or have you gotten older and wiser and not so worried about putting on a brave face?"

In her new single, "Fire Drills," Dessa makes the case that vitality and experience are hardly at odds. "I've seen Gibraltar. I've seen the Taj Mahal," she states. And she sounds as gutsy as ever. Like Doomtree's "The Bends," "Fire Drills" opens with a sample of what sounds like a sitar, an instrument that predates us all yet sounds cutting-edge here.

Following "Good Grief," "Fire Drills" is the second single off Dessa's upcoming album, Chime, which will drop on Feb. 23, 2018. For the fourth album straight (counting Castor, The Twin), the cover art features Dessa's face, this time seen from several sides. The word "chime" could certainly be interpreted in its musical sense, but it also reminds me of a phrase I've heard Dessa use often: "chime in," an encouragement to speak up, with the connotation of voices in harmony.

Read Dessa's own words about her upcoming album, and check out a tracklist and pre-order links below.

"I'm exceedingly proud to announce that Chime, my new full-length record, will be released on February 23rd. It's 11 tracks, a couple of years in the making, and the collective effort of some old friends (Lazerbeak, Cecil Otter, Paper Tiger), and some new collaborators (Andy "Triple Threat" Thompson). It's got some rap songs and some pop songs and one song about determinism that name-drops Saint Thomas Aquinas.

My life has changed considerably since my last album, Parts of Speech. I live half time in New York now and I look confident enough walking down the street to be stopped by the occasional tourist for directions. (I do not, however, have even a basic understanding of the F train's weekend schedule -- and am not sure how many years of reading the signage it will take to learn it.) I published my first travel piece for The New York Times Magazine and got to fill out my very own expense report, just like in the movies. My grandma Jeanette -- an important voice in my adult life -- died. I was invited to record a song for The Hamilton Mixtape. I got steamrolled by a pretty rough break-up. I bought myself a Maschine Mikro drum machine, read the first half of the manual three times, and banged out my very first beat -- which ended up as a song called "Jumprope" on the new record. (As a former copyeditor, I understand "jump rope" to be two words. As a songwriter, my friends, I do not care.)

I'm lucky to have connected with a listenership that's been willing to support my work across disciplines -- to read my essays that have nothing to do with music, or attend a science lecture, or check out a poetry reading. I've been able to venture into some new territory these past few years, learn some new skills, and now I'm enormously excited to return to releasing music. This album, like those past, will come out on Doomtree Records -- the group of artists with whom I've worked for all of my adult life. You can check out the first song, "Fire Drills," today.

Industry norms dictate that a pop musician should release a full-length record every year and a half, lest she risk losing the interest of her listeners. Thanks for the patience while I finished this shit. I don't want to jinx it, but I think 2018 is gonna be a hell of a year. More big news on the horizon."

Pre-order Chime on iTunes or Bandcamp, or at the Doomtree Webstore. (It's a Doomtree Record album, so sweet pre-order packages abound.)

Chime Track Listing

1. Ride
2. 5 out of 6
3. Fire Drills
4. Velodrome
5. Good Grief
6. Boy Crazy
7. Jumprope
8. Shrimp
9. Half of You
10. Say When
11. I Hope I'm Wrong