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# Mia Joy Returns With Star Echo Heavy Dove, Out January 15
- URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/mia-joy-star-echo-heavy-dove-january-15/
- Published: 2026-10-27T17:46:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T17:46:39.000Z
- Description: Six years after Spirit Tamer, the Chicago dream pop artist is back with a second album on Fire Talk, led by Wings of Desire, a slow, glowing single named after the Wim Wenders film.
- Author: unknowndivide staff
- Tags: Music, #surfacing

Chicago singer and songwriter [Mia Joy](https://miajoy.bandcamp.com/?ref=unknowndivide.com) is back. On October 27 her label [Fire Talk announced Star Echo Heavy Dove](https://firetalkrecs.com/news/miajoy-wingsofdesire?ref=unknowndivide.com), her long-awaited second album, out January 15, 2027\. The first taste is the lead single and video "Wings of Desire," and it is the kind of slow, glowing dream pop song that makes a six-year wait feel worth it.

Fire Talk describes the record as closing "a six-year orbital path," a return to recording and releasing music after time away. It was recorded across sessions spanning years and draws on songs from across her whole career, which the label calls "a self-referential ode to artistic and spiritual resilience." In other words, she went back to where she started to see how far she had come.

## Wings of Desire

The lead single takes its name from the 1987 Wim Wenders film of the same name. Fire Talk calls the song the album's centerpiece, a reflection on distance, longing and what we lose or gain chasing romance. The video, directed by Jordan Nelson, nods to the Wenders film and collects warm footage of Mia Joy with her friends and bandmates around her home base of Chicago, Illinois. It sits on Fire Talk's own announcement page and is below.

## Tracklist

Ten songs, with one guest: the ambient project Midwife joins on "Circle."

- Star Echo / Heavy Dove
- 4th of July
- Midnight
- Wings of Desire
- Yes You Can
- Easier
- Circle (featuring Midwife)
- Patience
- West
- Saturn II

## Formats and preorders

Preorders are open now on the [Star Echo Heavy Dove Bandcamp page](https://miajoy.bandcamp.com/album/star-echo-heavy-dove?ref=unknowndivide.com) and at the [Fire Talk store](https://firetalkrecs.com/?ref=unknowndivide.com). The options are a limited edition vinyl long-playing record (LP), a limited edition compact disc (CD), a two LP bundle that pairs the new record with her debut on vinyl, and bundles that add a Heavy Dove tee, a script hat or both. Bandcamp lists the physical editions as shipping on or around January 29, 2027, so expect the records a little after the digital release date.

## Where she is coming from

Mia Joy is the project of Mia Rocha. Her Bandcamp bio says she grew up in a spiritual home with a musician and a poet for parents, sang from the time she was a baby and joined the Chicago Children's Choir young. That same bio traces her ethereal pop to 1990s rhythm and blues (R&B) icons like Sade and Selena as much as to ambient music, and notes that she is a practicing astrologer, which is where her first EP (extended play), Gemini Moon, got its name.

Her debut, [Spirit Tamer](https://miajoy.bandcamp.com/album/spirit-tamer?ref=unknowndivide.com), came out on Fire Talk on May 7, 2021, recorded at Pallet Sound in Chicago by Michael Mac and coproduced by Rocha. It closed with a cover of Arthur Russell's "Our Last Night Together," and its song "Saturn" is, by her account, the first song she ever wrote. The new record ends with a track called "Saturn II." A deluxe edition followed in May 2026, and in September she shared the standalone single ["Comet," featuring Peel Dream Magazine](https://miajoy.bandcamp.com/album/comet-feat-peel-dream-magazine?ref=unknowndivide.com), which is not on the new album.

## Our call

This one is Surfacing. Mia Joy has stayed a word of mouth name, and a second album built from a whole career of songs is the right moment to catch up. Play "Wings of Desire" first, then go back to Spirit Tamer while you wait for January. If the vinyl is the goal, the two LP bundle is the neat way to own both records.

New to this corner of guitar haze? Start with our [shoegaze starter guide](https://www.unknowndivide.com/shoegaze-starter-guide-essential-albums/), then go deeper into dream pop with our [4AD Records starter guide](https://www.unknowndivide.com/4ad-records-starter-guide-essential-albums/).

[Star Echo Heavy Dove on Bandcamp](https://miajoy.bandcamp.com/album/star-echo-heavy-dove?ref=unknowndivide.com) · [Fire Talk announcement](https://firetalkrecs.com/news/miajoy-wingsofdesire?ref=unknowndivide.com) · [Wings of Desire official video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3W-p4xcYHE&ref=unknowndivide.com)