It's been five years since the release of Dessa's last album, Parts of Speech, which I still count as one of my favorite albums of all time. When I heard that Dessa was releasing a new album, I jumped at the chance to pre-order a copy. And I've been listening to nothing else since. Yes, it's that good. While Parts of Speech was introspective and sometimes sad, Chime is sharper, wiser, more honest and extremely timely. Dessa is a master at what she does, and uses every word and every note with precision and poise. Chime is a perfect example of Dessa's prowess, both with music and words.
The queen of Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree, Dessa followed her 2013 Parts of Speech album and EP with her fourth full-length, Chime, in early 2018. Inspired by a protracted breakup and subsequent fMRI experiments in search for the part of the brain responsible for romantic love, Chime included the single "Fire Drills" and debuted on the Billboard 200 upon release. ~ Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi