Today, Ski Team, aka Lucie Lozinski, shares “Santa” — the last song tracked (a few days before Christmas and everyone wearing sweaters) during the making of her forthcoming album Burnout/Boys, due January 23. For this new music, she teamed up with producer Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Westerman, Buck Meek, & many more) and Josh Bonati (Wild Nothing, Sufjan Stevens, Mac DeMarco) for mastering. Listen to “Santa” here and presave Burnout/Boys here.

With “Santa,” you think you’re getting a song about one thing when you hear the levity in her exacting voice, reminiscent of an Ingrid Michaelson or Sara Bareilles, but realize you’re in for something a little more uncanny when you listen into what she’s saying with those acrobatic runs: “he gives me a bump while we wait for the show / He’s the coolest guy I know.” Place “Santa” next to the last single, “New BF,” which is more in line with Splendora or Veruca Salt, and then the tube-y 70s disco sound on “Thirst Trap For Digeo,” and you get a polychromatic yet consistent record in Burnout/Boys.

There’s nothing gushing about Ski Team’s writing, but the witty, incisive humor of it gets to the depth of it from another angle; she’s an expounder, and a bit of a comedian, but not a diarist. There’s a curious duality to her voice that mirrors this sentiment. The scalpel-like precision at every acrobatic turn is at times deceptively dainty, and will slice you when you least expect it; yet it’s always full-bodied, as if it’s sopped up every bit of emotional overflow and carries it with her. With the gorgeously stripped down rendition of “Santa,” filmed and recorded at Harbor Studios in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that all becomes even more apparent:

Watch “Santa” live at Harbor Studios here.

“‘Santa’ is about having a crush on someone you shouldn’t, like an authority figure. Where it’s not the right time or right dynamic, but the idea is persistent. And the beauty and ache when the other person doesn’t allow it. Blows, but also…thank you… Some sadness and beauty,” Lozinski explains.

A lot of Burnout/Boys is about the uncertainty surrounding the value of what’s created; a desire to be a human even while optimizing for efficiency and good experiences in both work and romance. The writing is what keeps Burnout/Boys whole. Sonically diverse, we get the full spectrum of clever front women, drawing you near with a slight oddity and alluring precision.

Lucie Lozinski started making music as a young child, writing songs and learning to harmonize as she learned to talk and write, thanks to growing up surrounded by music at home, in her father’s backyard studio, and at church. She sang with some big names before turning 10, backing legends like Tony Bennett and Queen Latifah, and sang in bands as a teenager before turning her focus to writing — studying creative writing, literature, translation, and linguistics in school and winning awards for her early prose.

She moved to California to pursue a career in technical writing, learning about computers and technology from scratch. While there, she also compiled her first set of songs and started releasing them to the world as Ski Team, including not one, but two basketball-fueled tracks, “Knicks Suck,” and “Thank You, Jalen Brunson.”

Now back in New York, Lozinski has marked a new dedication to music. Taking a leave of absence form her career as an award-winning writer to make the forthcoming album, Ski Team set out to balance high agency with acceptance, observation, and making room for the unknown.