Laura Mvula recently returned with her first single in five years, “Safe Passage,” which found her departing from her soul/R&B roots in favor of ’80s synthpop, and she also released the 1/f EP which found her reworking four of her older songs to fit her newer style. Now she has announced her third album, Church Girl, which arrives July 2 via Atlantic (pre-order). It features “Safe Passage,” as well as the just-released second single “Church Girl.”

“This is the album I always wanted to make,” she said in a statement. “Every corner is made warm with sunset tones of the 80s. I was born in 1986. I came out of the womb wearing shoulder pads. I absorbed the dynamism of the 80s aesthetic right from my first moments on this planet. Wrestling with identity seems to be one of the rites of passage of the established artist. Making ‘Pink Noise’ felt like the most violent of emotional wrestling matches. It took three years of waiting and waiting and fighting and dying and nothingness and then finally an explosion of sound. As if it was always here this record is my most honest and unapologetic flying of the freedom flag. In my adult years I had forgotten how important dance was to me as a vital tool of my creative expression. I brought it back, just for me, so I could find my delight in dance again. And now I can’t stop dancing. I can’t wait to play this album live.”

We can’t wait to hear it live! Listen to both singles and the 1/f EP below.

Tracklist
1. Safe Passage
2. Conditional
3. Church Girl
4. Remedy
5. Magical
6. Pink Noise
7. Golden Ashes
8. What Matters
9. Got Me
10. Before The Dawn