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Oct 10, 2023 By Mark Redfern

Chicago musician and poet Jamila Woods is releasing a new album, Water Made Us, this Friday via Jagjaguwar. Now she has shared its fourth single, “Practice,” via a music video. The song features Saba. Carlos López Estrada directed the video, which could be considered NSFW due to some non-sexual nudity. Watch it below, followed by Woods’ upcoming tour dates.

McClenney produced the song. Woods had this to say about it in a press release: “‘Practice’ is a song I made with McClenney about releasing the pressure we put on ourselves in relationships. I was trying to shift how I often evaluate relationships based on their potential for longevity rather than on how I feel in the moment. The song is about how we can learn to just enjoy ourselves and be present with someone without needing to ‘get everything right’ or ‘have everything together.’ My friend Carlos López Estrada came up with this concept of creating faces with bodies in a way that’s sensual and silly at the same time. The whole process was very playful and experimental, which suits the song perfectly.”

McClenney says: “‘Practice’ was such an important part of completing this album. We went through 2-3 different versions of the song to end up with the final you hear today. Where it sat in the sequence was important because it has a familiar rhythmic groove that celebrates the joy of exploring a new relationship while bookending the ‘honeymoon’ phase of the album’s themes as the next few tracks move onto heavier & more vulnerable topics and tones. It was a puzzle piece Jamila and I spent so much time making sure we got right. Saba has been a consistent collaborator of her’s and it felt like the perfect track to capture their synergistic creative energies with something both familiar and new; he killed it.”

Previously Woods shared a video for the album’s first single, “Tiny Garden,” which features duendita. “Tiny Garden” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared its second single, “Boomerang,” via a music video. “Bommerang” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then she has shared its third single, “Good News,” another Songs of the Week entry.

Woods had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “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. 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.”

Jamila Woods Tour Dates:

U.S. Dates:

2/1/2024 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos
2/2/2024 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
2/4/2024 - San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
2/6/2024 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
2/7/2024 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
2/10/2024 - Austin, TX @ Emo’s
2/11/2024 - Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory
2/13/2024 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
2/16/2024 - Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre
2/17/2024 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
2/18/2024 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
2/20/2024 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
2/23/2024 - Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre

UK/EU Dates:

4/23/2024 – London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
4/25/2024 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg OZ
4/26/2024 – Brussels, BE @ Nuits Botanique
4/27/2024 – Paris, FR @ La Bellevilloise
4/29/2024 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
4/30/2024 – Copenhagen, DK @ Lille Vega

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