Album of the Week: Dessa, 'Chime'

'Chime' is a huge leap forward for Dessa. It's her most musically adventurous collection to date, combining the experimental pop approach of her solo work with the more aggressive, hard-edged delivery of her verses with the rap collective Doomtree to create a playing field where both string sections and trap beats can roam freely. Her lyrics, too, have branched out from the stories of heartbreak that defined much of her earlier work to include dissertations on feminism and her evolving role as a woman in a very male-dominated industry.

It's true that women -- in the music industry, in Hollywood, in the service industry, across America -- are in the midst of a movement and a moment, and Dessa's new work contributes several satisfying lines to that national conversation. "I'm here to file my report as the vixen of the wolf pack; Tell Patient Zero he can have his rib back," she scoffs on "Fire Drills," slyly tagging the biblical Adam as the originator of a centuries-long epidemic of patriarchy. "A woman's worth -- I think that she deserves a better line of work than mother***ing vigilance," she continues, amping up to a blazing finale. "That can't be what a woman is / That gives her nothing to aspire to / What that is / Is just a life of running fire drills."

While the blazing indictments of gender dynamics provide some of the most satisfying moments on the record, one also gets the sense that Dessa has been doing the hard work of building a stronger foundation for herself by looking inward and investigating her own pitfalls. As she demonstrated powerfully at her show with the Minnesota Orchestra last spring, a prolonged bout of heartbreak became so unmanageable that she went so far as to scientifically remove an unhealthy fixation on an old flame from her brain, retraining her synapses in search of solace. Musically, the result is that even her quieter ballads have taken on a new sense of self-possession and agency; as she sings in one of the album's many highlights, "Good Grief," she's been melted down, recast, and burned clean.

The result is an artist who is growing ever sharper, galvanized by her pain and empowered to tell the truth about the dark side of love, power, and hard-fought success.

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• Watch Dessa deconstruct the making of her new album 'Chime' Watch Dessa and her collaborators Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson peel back the curtain of the music-making process.
• Dessa: Something Old And Something New, Suitable For Choir Watch the singer and rapper perform "Skeleton Key" and "The Good Fight" with the VocalEssence choir.
• Dessa performs live at the Minnesota State Fair This week at the Minnesota State Fair, members of the local emcee collective Doomtree will be stopping by the MPR Booth on the corner of Judson and Nelson. On Tuesday, Dessa performed live and chatted with host Mary Lucia about what's in store the crew in the coming months.
• The Current Sessions&trade;: Dessa's 'Parts of Speech' at the Fitzgerald Theater On June 22, The Current hosted Dessa's <em>Parts Of Speech</em> release show at The Fitzgerald Theater. With another Current Sessions at The Fitz, Barb Abney highlights the performance.
• Watch Dessa Deconstructed Watch Dessa break down her new album word-by-word and beat-by-beat in front of a live audience at Minnesota Public Radio's UBS Forum.
• Album Review: Dessa - Parts of Speech At this point in her career, Dessa has little left to prove. In Minnesota, she's achieved total media saturation. Nationally, her profile has steadily risen with vocal support from flagship critics like Robert Christgau and media outlets like <em>Elle Magazine</em> and <em>MTV</em>. And all signs point to <em>Parts of Speech</em> serving as her biggest push toward a mainstream audience yet.
• Dessa performs live at the Fitzgerald Theater Dessa played a very sold-out show at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul in support of her newest release, "Castor, the Twin," a reworking of mostly older songs from her extensive catalogue. Enjoy audio and video from the event.
• Dessa performs live at the Minnesota State Fair Dessa stopped by the Current booth at the Minnesota State Fair on MPR Day for a live performance.
• Dessa performs in The Current studios Dessa stopped by The Current studio to promote her debut release "A Badly Broken Code."