Crucial Track for February 1, 2026

"Wreckage Room" by Jamila Woods

#365songs (32 / 365)

Usually I don't like an album too much when I listen to it the first time, even when it's by an artist I know I like. But after getting pretty into Jamila Woods's previous album LEGACY! LEGACY! I loved Water Made Us from the very first listen. It's an album all about relationships whose first few tracks are very likable and optimistic ones any of which I could have chosen for this post. But "Wreckage Room," as you might surmise from the title, is about a breakup, probably. Like the rest of Water Made Us it's a sophisticated take on its subject, and it's just a gorgeous song in its own right.

I love how the first chorus is like a shaft of light piercing through the dusty processed vocals of the first verse. I love everything about the chorus, actually — not that there's a lot to it — including that there's not a lot to it. When you've been through a breakup or two there is something so pure and correct about "Oh, time," as a longing, a plea, a promise.

The substance of the dissolution in the verses is vague but evocative: insufficiency, mismatches, not a lot of blame, an appropriate amount of regret. It's generous, for a breakup song. All of Water Made Us is warm and generous about love, even when it doesn't work out.