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Jul 29, 2025 By Caleb Campbell Photography by POND Creative

Poet, musician, and singer/songwriter Deja Carr debuted her musical project under the name Mal Devisa almost a decade ago, releasing her album Kiid in 2016. After a lengthy break, Carr returned with a handful of new singles this year, including a pair of new tracks earlier this month, “To Be Unwilling” and “O Ivory,” teasing her new album, Palimpsesa. The record is an anthology featuring Carr’s renditions of old standards, re-recorded versions of some of her earliest songs, and a host of unreleased material. The results run the stylistic gamut between jazz, folk, and hip-hop, with Carr’s lyrical poetics drifting atop loop-based rhythms and liberatory rock dramatics.

The full album is out tomorrow, July 30th, via Topshelf Records, but ahead of the full release, Carr is sharing an early listen to one of its highlights, “You Go To My Head,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“You Go To My Head” is a jazz standard that’s been recorded over the years by dozens of artists, including touchstones like Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Dylan. Carr’s take on the track evokes the timeless qualities of Ella Fitzgerald’s version but finds Carr occupying her own space, with her singular vocal talents guided by some watery keys and spacious jazz drumming. Carr is the spotlit star, her vocals smokey, simmering, and striking. The track’s standout moment comes as Carr dips into her lower register before climbing steadily to a beautifully understated resolution, highlighting her rich vocal range and the honeyed timbre of her voice, before she lets the keys carry the song to its end.

Carr says of the track, “‘You Go To My Head’ is one of my favorite standards. The first time I sang it, I was at the Litchfield Jazz Camp in Connecticut, and I just fell utterly in love with how sweet and intoxicating it was, and is. It’s a timeless song.”

Check out the song below. Palimpsea is due out everywhere tomorrow, July 30th, via Topshelf Records.