American crooner Nicole Atkins dropped off her new single “Darkness Falls So Quiet” through Billboard today. The new track comes out ahead of her upcoming album, Goodnight Rhonda Lee, which will drop July 21 through Single Lock Records.

The dusty track is a soulful jam. A simple drum beat, a swinging piano riff, and a few accents from a horn section is all Atkins needs to dive into a dark place. “All that I’m left with is the sound of my rhythm when the darkness falls so quiet,” Atkins proclaims. The new single reflects the themes and lyrics that permeate throughout the album, according to a sit down with Billboard. The album’s title references Atkins “drunk alter ego,” and takes about her life experiences over the past few years, including a few years of recovery from alcoholism.

“A reason I decided to stop drinking in the first place was I couldn’t create anything. I didn’t want to write, I didn’t want to journal, I didn’t want to sing but I still had to do all those things, and I hated being in a place where music was something I had to do. I knew that was false. But even as soon as I got my first two weeks sober, everything started to come back.”

If the new track is a result of her sobriety, then the difficult road to recovery was well worth it. Atkins points to this specific track, as it was a compass for the sound of the rest of the album. “So we just got together in a room and put a groove to it, and once we flipped it to an R&B groove in the rehearsal space it immediately gave it the left side of old soul vibe I was looking for on this record as a whole. It was the first track that turned out this way, and it created a map for the rest of the songs on the album.” Check out the new track below and stay tuned for the new album out later this July. Atkins has also made the rounds at several festivals this year.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat