Mia Joy, Chicago’s self-proclaimed “melodic dove,” has shared a new sprawling single, “Freak,” from her forthcoming album Spirit Tamer. The nearly three-minute ballad is quiet but powerful and has some of Joy’s most cutting lyrics yet, including a reference to Korn’s “Freak On A Leash” in the opening line: “I’m not a freak on a leash/ ’cause you burn me to set me free.” In the press release, she explained:

I loved the imagery of that phrase, a freak on a leash as in feeling tied in a relationship you know is toxic but feeling bound to them, thus making you crazy or a “freak.” Once off the leash, the pain that was holding onto you, you can finally find your own way. I wanted to end it with a sense of reclaiming identity and independence and breaking free from the symbolic leash.

Her music often reckons with ideas and images as razor-sharp as this one; in previous single “See Us,” she sings: “I’m not my father, you’re not your mother/ I know we can make it different for us.” Both songs are peaceful indie tracks in the same world as Lomelda or Angel Olsen, hypnotic with soft, lulled vocals using poetic lyrics as a form of meditating.

Hear “Freak” below.

Spirit Tamer is out 5/7 via Fire Talk Records.