Across her new, third album, Water Made Us, Chicago songwriter and poet Jamila Woods explores relationships.

Sequencing the record so it mirrors the stages of a relationship —early flirtations, heady days, conflict, doubt, breakup— the 34-year-old delivers a set of playful songs that are as sonically experimental as they are emotionally rich.

The cuts on Water Made Us come steeped in both reflections on personal experience and conversations with friends and family, with inspirations and references ranging from Toni Morrison to Allen Iverson.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Anthony Carew on The International Pop Underground, Woods talks about her grounding in dramaturgy, her love of arranging albums like completed puzzles, her great previous records (2016's HEAVN, 2019's Legacy! Legacy!), the reflective time of the pandemic and much more.

Feature image: Elizabeth De La Piedra