tUnE-yArDs

"Look Around" is incredibly lovely and I feel like I haven't heard anything like it before.

I was underwhelmed on my first listen. Her vocal and instrumental tricks often seem forced. Will give it another listen or 3

It seemed v bitsy/selfconscious on first listen, maybe wrong obv

Her vocal and instrumental tricks often seem forced.

I hear that on, e.g. the chorus to "Wait For a Minute", where the "OW OW OW"s seem to have been forced onto the wrong beat and make the song sound broken. I assume that's Merrill deliberately messing with the smoothness of the track (meant to express self-doubt/stasis).

gonna need a few more spins to determine what I'm thinking, feels a little hit and miss on second pass.
water fountain prob a top ten single of the year for me tho

Sounds marvelous on third listen.

I wasn't sure I needed another Tune-Yards album in my life, but this sounds pretty good to me so far.

I kinda miss the saxophones... The many synths aren't really a good trade, it takes away some of her uniqueness and energy. But I really like her project, I love the lyrics and I love the way she explores identity. Rocking Chair is marvelous.

What type of crazy punctuation/typography thing should she do next to drive the music press crazy?

I vote having line breaks in the middle of
her al
bum tit
le
like
this

A really obvious point to make, given all the post-Haiti-trip drumming on the record, but a lot of this sounds like a lost Slits or Rip Rig & Panic album.

Second the comment above about "Look Around". "Real Thing" and that is a great 1-2 punch.

Could happily listen to Merrill singing all day.

Also really miss the saxophones.

Just watched their recent performance of Water Fountainon Fallon and it's way better than the recorded version -- seems like i recall feeling the same way when i watched the Tiny Desk Concert they did promoting the last album.

ultimately this album feels like a swing and a miss to me; too much exploration of "okay i have a style and i'm famous so now what"
I'll ride for Water Fountain (def fave track for this year so far), Wait for a Minute and Rocking Chair but not a whole lot else. It's easily her weakest LP in my eyes.
Strangely, one of my old interns is touring and doing back up for Garbus; she's in that Fallon performance.

Maybe Nikki Nack isn't as much of a breakthrough as Whokill was, but I think in some ways I like it better. It's more consistent. There are a couple of tracks that I skip on Whokill but none on Nikki Nack - although "Rocking Chair" doesn't feel very essential, it's short enough, unlike for instance "Wooly Wooly Gong" on Whokill which seems to go on forever.

That's an inversion of how I'm listening to it! Different strokes I guess.

finally had a chance to listen to the new one a few times, and I love it. It's like an instant party in a can.
Whokill had higher highs, and parts where you go, "what is this whichcraft?" Nikki Nack just has me blissfully head bopping in the fabulous far-out mix.

i think the "party" aspect is a little deceptive -- the lyrics get pretty dark, all the stuff about rape/domestic violence, identity politics, depression, gentrification.

(not to mention the cannibalism interlude, which i wish she'd left off the record b/c it just feels so out of place.)

i love the record though; it reminds me of growing up in nyc and being exposed to the hulking and ever-mutating mass of pop/synth-R&B/freestyle/electro/new jack/reggae-inflected stuff that was on the radio and coming out of every car window, as well as all the attitudinal fringe-folk weirdos at the little clubs and festivals that my folks dragged me to. i've said before that tune-yards is really evocative of "summer prospect park 1988" for me and that's even more true with nikki nack.

I like the cannibalism skit. Reminds me of the skits on De La Soul Is Dead.

(not to mention the cannibalism interlude, which i wish she'd left off the record b/c it just feels so out of place.)

this, exactly! i don't necessarily hate the interlude, it just sucks a lot of the energy and momentum out of the record at that point!

Maybe 'party' was too strong, but her singing sounds so self-assured and dynamic as apposed to the more experimental stuff. I almost expect to hear her throw in a 'come on now' every now and then.

She does throw in some "Woo Hah!"s.

I've had mixed feelings about this band before but they kicked ass at Pitchfork Fest. I was really impressed. I guess they make sense as a "festival band."

I was going to say the opposite -- love "Hatari" and all of Whokill that I've heard, just saw them play a festival set and they were good but I wished I were seeing them in a smaller room with fewer people.

I really enjoy this record - maybe even moreso than w h o k i l l - and I'm a bit surprised it doesn't seem to have the same kind of impact as its predecessor. Sure, it's a bit messy in places, and it requires a few listens to properly sink in, but that's always been the case with her, hasn't it? So many hooks, so many beautiful melodies to discover!

What's interesting to me is that she has said in interviews that she had studied 'pop composition' prior to writing the album. I vaguely remember her even mentioning a book on how to write a pop hit. It's curious, because most of the songs here tend to stray away from the typical pop structure. It's a bit more glossy, more synths and programmed beats; hooks and tunes - check, but your usual pop song structure? Not so much.

huh I thought this album was explicitly more conventional in songwriting and performance than whokill

also, it rules

Yeah, compared to w h o k i l l, sure, but in early press she made it sound like HERE COMES MY TOP 40 RECORD. Or maybe I just saw it mentioned one time too many and expected something more straightforward. But I'm glad she didn't dumb it down; and yeah, it rules.

love it

It definitely hasn't gotten a tenth of the buzz of whokill. I have a theory--the lyric "a blood soaked dollar" from the single is to blame. It comes across as a Grade Z Occupy Wall Street trope, just so obvious and clumsy. It kinda mars what is a kickass song.

i just never warmed to this album.

I admired the previous album, but rarely wanted to play it. This one I actually enjoy listening to.

Saw her live last night. What an awesome gig. It made me appreciate her songs even more, especially the Nikki Nack ones.

they sound better live, yes.

New song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAadziqcQZw

The album, I can feel you creep into my private life, is out in January.

I am really surprised by how hard I've turned around on her. I guess once I acclimated to the shouting, I could start enjoying what she was doing.

lol reading upthread shows I have both a great mind for inference and a terrible memory

Very cool!!

Love it. Welcome back.

Love this.

"Heart Attack". Like the way the track starts very basically, then gradually blossoms to an opulent 70s disco sound. Album's going to rule. Don't like this video much though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7je-jsuC4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xd097nWH2s

I like the video better than the song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hcG6UgTHiU

this is the best thing i've heard from them in a long time

This 1000% reignited my fandom... I love when she plays to her strengths (biggest voice out there, puppets)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy3xdHw4YTs

I mean it this performance is crazy and great, vocal performance alone even

yeah that's a fantastic performance

i feel pretty optimistic about the new album now

i kinda like the cover of Cannonball

Me too

i really like this album, her best since whokill! haven't paid enough attention to notice if there's any of the real embarrassing clunkers there were on the last one though