Tune-Yards – I can feel you creeping into my private life // REVIEW Music Editor, Áine Palmer, reviews the band's latest album, nine years after their debut, Bird-Brains.

“I ask myself what I should/But all I know is white centrality” sings Merrill Garbus over a four-to-the-floor rhythm in ‘ABC 123’, one of the leading singles from Tune-Yards’ latest album. Released nine years after Merrill’s DIY debut Bird-Brains, I can feel you creep into my private life is a rumination and reflection whiteness set to infectious dance beats.

       

The combination isn’t unusual. Dance music has always been political, from disco to house. This is Tune-Yards at their most danceable, but their eclectic sound draws from a range of influences, including Haitian percussion and Malian singing. This could veer towards cultural appropriation, but it’s worth keeping in mind how much pop and rock has already taken from African-American traditions. It’s odd, yet fitting, that now this musical language is being used to critique a system of institutional racism.

       

As a fourth release, I can see you represents, if not a maturation, at least a distillation of some of the strong elements of Tune-Yards’ sound. Fans of the lo-fi, ukulele-driven music found on Bird-Brains might miss the complex compound rhythms and intricate vocal loops, but there are plenty of great tracks here, though it’s missing the consistency of whokills. Nevertheless, Nate Brenner consistently provides a great bass groove, and there’s still fun to be found in the signature use of glitchy drum machines and loop pedals.

 

The veer towards politics isn’t a new one—previous tracks like ‘My Country’ and ‘Stop That Man’ have already critiqued American life. It’s just a bit clearer in this album. Lines like “I use my white woman’s voice to tell stories” (‘Colonizer’) may veer towards being heavy handed, yet I can see you nevertheless features an impressive integration of politically charged lyrics into a very enjoyable pop album.

 

In its original iteration, identity politics was a tool used by black feminists to dismantle all systems of oppression, on the basis that “the most radical politics come directly out of our own identity”. Garbo’s examination of her own status as a white woman serves a broader critique of the corrupt systems in which we are complicit. She calls upon us to do the same: ‘Look at your hands’. And though you might choose to ignore the politics at your own peril, even without the lyrics this is still a solid dance album.

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