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Apr 30, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Kathryn Vetter Miller Jess Williamson

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Jess Williamson is releasing a new album, Sorceress, on May 15 via Mexican Summer. Now she has shared another song from it, album opener “Smoke,” via a self-directed video for the track. The video was shot under quarantine on her iPhone and features animation by Alex Tults. Watch it below.

Williamson had this to say about “Smoke” in a press release: “This song is about a codependent relationship. It’s told from the perspective of the person who keeps giving and giving, and, on some level, they like it.”

A press release further describes the video’s concept as such: “In the video, directed by Williamson and filmed at home on her iPhone during quarantine, lit incense is the main character—its smoke sets the stage for an animated mushroom dance (by Alex Tults), a la Fantasia. The video speaks to the stir craziness we’re all feeling in quarantine, and it very much emerged from that space: Working with what she had on hand, Williamson put on a funny outfit she found in her closet, grabbed her phone, danced around with incense, and lost her mind a little bit.”

Previously Williamson shared the album’s first single, “Wind on Tin,” via a video for the track. “Wind on Tin” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared another song from it, “Infinite Scroll,” via a video for the track where she played a runaway bride, but then there was a sci-fi twist. “Infinite Scroll” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Sorceress is the follow-up to 2018’s Cosmic Wink, also released by Mexican Summer. The album was written in Los Angeles and was mainly recorded at Gary’s Electric in Brooklyn. The finishing touches were put on Sorceress at Dandysounds, a home studio on a ranch in Dripping Springs, Texas, where Williamson recorded Cosmic Wink.

A previous press release described Sorceress in more detail: “Offering a deep-hued kaleidoscope of dusty ’70s cinema, ’90s country music, and breezy West Coast psychedelia, Sorceress weaves a woman’s wild love letters to a confusing present and uncertain future—with reflections on femininity and the pursuit of perfection, New Age beliefs and practices, critiques of capitalism and social media, southern and western landscapes, and intimate details of the lives and deaths of loved ones and friends. It’s a record about loss of innocence and acquired wisdom that’s self-critical, self-assured, and soul-searching. The Texan singer and songwriter makes deeply felt songs that orbit around her powerful voice, a voice that’s strong and vulnerable, big-room flawless, quietly ecstatic, and next-to-you intimate.”

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