Parts of Speech

Personnel: Dessa (vocals, piano); Aby Wolf, Gabriel Douglas, Benjamin Burwell (vocals); Dustin Kiel (guitar, piano, programming); Mayda (guitar, synthesizer, drum programming); Rebecca Arons, Nick Ogawa (cello); Scott Agster (trombone); Joey Van Phillips (vibraphone, drums, percussion); Jessy Greene, Joe Mabbott.
Audio Mixer: Joe Mabbott.
Recording information: Fleur De Tete; McNally Smith College Of Music; The Birdcage; The Hideaway, Minneapolis, MN.
Editor: Brady Moen.
Photographer: Bill Phelps.
Following several solo releases as well as the publication of multiple books of fiction and poetry, Minneapolis writer/rapper Dessa returned with third full-length solo album Parts of Speech. A longtime member of the Doomtree hip-hop collective, Dessa's work before Parts of Speech was heavier on the hip-hop wordsmithery. While lyrics are still paramount here, they're often represented more in alternative-styled singing than rap routines. In producing the album, Dessa approached it more like a mixtape for a friend than a stylistically strict collection of overly similar songs. Thus, she jumps from semi-rapped verses to deeply crooned choruses over the dark and bitter pop beat of "Call Off Your Ghost" and orchestral musing on the gently acoustic "Annabelle," among other variants in style over the course of the album.