Tasha’s You Are Spring Follows a Roadtrip Through Renewal — Hear “Clarion” and “Spring”

Tasha’s new phase arrives not as a pivot so much as a rearrangement of familiar furniture. The Chicago-born singer-songwriter, newly based in New York, has shared two new songs from the forthcoming album You Are Spring: the reflective single “Clarion” and the collaborative “Spring,” which brings Jamila Woods and L’Rain into her orbit.

“While making the long drive between New York and Chicago (which I did 3 times in the span of 2 months in 2024) I repeatedly took note of a sign for the Pennsylvania town of Clarion and each time thought to myself, “That would make a great name for a song.” So I decided to make a song with that name. A song about coming and going, about wanting to change your life but not quite knowing how you’re going to do it, but feeling suddenly on the edge of figuring it out. The goodness is coming, it’s around the corner, you can feel it!

That line about drives and towns is more than a behind-the-scenes anecdote; it feels like a key to the record. You Are Spring was tracked in Los Angeles and produced by Gregory Uhlman, who has a recent résumé that includes work with Meg Duffy and Perfume Genius. Uhlman’s presence suggests an attention to intimate detail — a subtle architecture under Tasha’s voice rather than a larger, arena-ready soundscape — and the two singles behave accordingly. “Clarion” registers as a roadside meditation: patient, small gestures adding up until the feeling of movement becomes emotional gravity.

“Spring,” which credits Jamila Woods and L’Rain, is the clearer communal statement. Tasha told listeners the song was sparked by Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “To The Young Who Want To Die,” and the result leans into consolation rather than sermon. Woods’ and L’Rain’s contributions are not flashy features; they fold into the song like voices in a conversation, offering counterpoint and texture. The pairing locates Tasha at the intersection of Chicago’s spoken-word and R&B lineage and the experimental fringes that L’Rain occupies.

Both songs come with videos — “Clarion” directed by Mars Alba and “Spring” by Stella Rae Binion — and while they are meant to be taken together with the music, the basic facts matter more than any indie-art gloss: these are films about travel and arrival, about not being finished with yourself, and they bookend a record that trades big gestures for close listening.

It’s worth noting the album’s relation to Tasha’s recent output. You Are Spring follows 2024’s All This And So Much More, and it doesn’t feel like a rejection of that previous era so much as a compression of it. Where the earlier project sometimes sprawled, this one seems intent on containment: spare arrangements, quiet revelations, a thread of hope that doesn’t demand triumphalism.

Tracklist

1. Spring (Feat. Jamila Woods & L’Rain)
2. Clarion
3. Perfect
4. Promise
5. Ending
6. Summer
7. Lucky
8. Actor
9. Special
10. Porous
11. Quick!

You Are Spring is due 6/26 via Bayonet. If the two singles are any indication, Tasha’s next chapter will ask listeners to accompany her on short rides and quiet thresholds — to notice names on a road sign, to sit with a friend’s voice, to wait without panicking. That restraint feels purposeful in a landscape that often equates urgency with importance.