Katie Crutchfield keeps busy. Even as she’s continued to tour, tour, tour in pandemic-belated support of Waxahatchee’s first-rate 2020 album, Saint Cloud, she’s found the time to make new music, too. She cut a few new covers for a spruced-up, deluxe version of that current album, released earlier this year, and now comes word that she’s written and recorded the soundtrack for El Deafo, a forthcoming Apple TV+ show adapted from the Cece Bell book of the same name. The first track from the effort soared into the world this week. It’s as bright and heroic as the character it was written for, Crutchfield’s arcing vocals adding resonance to lyrics of hard-earned resolve: “But I’m not looking for a big distraction anyways/ I’ll climb up to the top and yell at all I have to say/ Why can’t that start today?”

The soundtrack to El Deafo and the streaming series itself are both scheduled for release in early January 2022.