The almost frighteningly talented Northampton, Massachusetts musician Deja Carr is the force behind the slightly mysterious project Mal Devisa. Back in 2016, after impressing a whole lot of people with her live shows on the DIY scene, Carr released the deeply impressive debut album Kiid. Since then, Carr appears to have gone through a turbulent period. Earlier this year, she was forced to cancel a tour with Mitski after being hospitalized with an unnamed illness. So we are very happy to report that Carr has returned this morning with an entire new Mal Devisa album, one that she did not announce before releasing.

The new Mal Devisa album Shade and the little Creature — capitalization theirs — showed up suddenly on Bandcamp this morning. It appears to have no label attached and no real cover art. (The Bandcamp page is simply using a live photo of Carr as the art, and I’m not posting it on our site because that’s how websites get sued.) The Bandcamp page claims that the album was recorded in studios in New York and Massachusetts and in Carr’s bedroom, and it includes this cryptic note: “All the folks who work at Young Turks: fUCK You and hire Mack back.”

On first listen, this is a hell of an album. Two of its songs, “Crowd Pleaser” and “You Are My Sunshine,” had already come out as one-off tracks. But taken together, the whole album draws on soul, indie rock, rap, and punk, without ever falling into any of those categories. It is a wild and expressive piece of work, and it demands a whole lot of deep listening. Listen to it below.

You can, and should, buy Shade and the little Creature at Bandcamp.