Jamila Woods’ final show as part of her Water Made Us tour was also a homecoming show. And the local crowd — which packed the room at the Vic Theatre — responded with the sort of love befitting a hometown hero.
In the almost eight years since Woods’ debut album, “Heavn,” she has amassed a steady following of music fans interested in lyrically immersive soul. But with each successive album, Woods has gained more sonic and instrumental confidence too, incorporating elements of other genres like alt-rock and improvisational music to make her songs shine. And on her latest record, “Water Made Us,” she also pushed herself lyrically.
If “Legacy! Legacy!,” her sophomore album, was a musical ode to the artists and writers who influenced Woods — like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison — then her latest record is unequivocally her most vulnerable yet. Here, Woods unraveled the intricacies of her own personal life, interspersing them throughout the record to share a story about intimacy, relationships and the ways in which we yearn or fight or despair over them.
Woods detailed this experience during parts of the show, highlighting how “Water Made Us” is “the Jamila album” that focuses on “how we talk to and relate to each other in moments of conflict.” Later, Woods talked about how the writing of this album occurred after the tail end of her Saturn return, in astrological terms, and the emotional and social strife of 2020. Woods had always clung to an image of herself being a good person, she said, but a lot of reflection (and some Zoom therapy) helped her unlock the ways in which her perceptions of herself hindered or limited her in her everyday life.
Lyrically, this can be heard on many of the tracks which make up her latest record. And they were heard throughout the evening on Friday’s show. Woods wowed a calm yet enthusiastic audience as she took the stage. Sporting a crop top and late ’90s, Janet Jackson-esque hair, Woods powered through the first six songs of “Water Made Us” with confidence and flare. Often, she added a dash of choreography and slight hand movements as she sang, matching the rhythm and energy of her full band.
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Woods has always made for a compelling live performer, but the confidence and self-assuredness of her latest performance while singing songs like the infectious album opener “Bugs” or the emotional “Tiny Garden” shows she has entered a new and exciting phase of her career.
For the most part, Woods stuck to tracks from the new record. She even performed the song/poem “I Miss All My Exes” (originally featuring Chicago musician Gia Margaret). Woods opened up a book to recite the work while her charismatic band propelled the instrumentation forward, providing a surprising moment of pause (albeit briefly) in the theater. Halfway through the show, she was also joined by local musician Peter CottonTale as they performed the song “Thermostat.” The two long-time friends and collaborators created a captivating duet.
Later, she covered Paramore’s “That’s What You Get,” sliding it seamlessly into the flow of the groove-heavy live show. It seemed like it took a moment or two for the rapturous audience (who had been singing along to every Woods original) to catch on. But once they did, they were delighted by the surprise change in the musical direction. Woods charms as much as she challenges her audiences. Yet that didn’t mean all of her old tracks were discarded. Popular older songs like “Holy” found a place during the hour-plus long set. Woods could have kept going (she certainly has the body of work to back it up), but she left the audience delighted and eager for more, something only the best musicians can do.
Britt Julious is a freelance critic.