In the great cultural appropriation reckoning of recent years, most of the focus fell on mainstream pop and hip-hop. But Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus, who drew freely from global styles across three alt-pop albums, is too curious an artist to accept a free pass, and wrestles thorny issues of race, privilege and platform on her fourth. “I use my white woman’s voice to tell stories of travels with African men,” she sings on the crunching, pulsing Colonizer, “I smell the blood in my voice.”
The thrill of her cool self-appraisal is boosted by a new sound, more liberating party than pious penance, that integrates a taste for the euphoric early days of dance into the duo’s melange. ABC 123 finds her “living in the new reality”, relearning the basics over a restless, shunting rhythm, while Heart Attack builds to palpitating, house-piano bliss. Coast to Coast takes a darker, more sinuous tone, Garbus wondering whether the best way for humanity is to just surrender to rising seas, “welcome the ocean, and lay our blame down?”
No easy answers are found, but the new energy here suggests Honesty – the title of a standout techno’n’sax track – has set Tune-Yards free to keep asking.
