Today Tune-Yards announce details of their fifth studio album, sketchy.  The 11-track record, which includes the single ‘nowhere, man’, will be released on 26th March 2021.  Today, Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner release another preview from sketchy., the grounding single ‘hold yourself.’ and its animated accompanying video directed by Basa Studio.

+ Pre-order sketchy. on limited yellow opaque vinyl, standard black vinyl, and CD, from the 4AD Store here +
Yellow vinyl pre-orders from 4AD Store will receive a limited signed 12x12 print whilst stocks last
+ Pre-order sketchy. on exclusive blue translucent vinyl from your local indie store here +
+ Pre-order and pre-save on the platform of your choice here +

Beneath the layered sounds of 'hold yourself.' lies Garbus’ most explicit lyrics she’s ever written; a clear-eyed moment of grief and simmering rage that builds from the song's calming introduction to its explosive culmination. “This song is about feeling really betrayed, by my parents’ generation, and at the same time, really seeing how we are betraying the future,” Garbus explains.

Listen to 'hold yourself.' on the platform of your choice here.

Tune-Yards’ last release i can feel you creep into my private life, was a self-reflexive question mark at the end of a decade of outspoken, polyphonic indie music.  From 2009 to 2018, Tune-Yards (both Merrill and her partner and collaborator Nate Brenner) released four critically acclaimed albums, travelled the world relentlessly to play live shows, and composed the psychedelic score to Boots Riley's surrealist cinematic masterpiece Sorry To Bother You.  "We had really been non-stop hustling," Merrill reflects.  "And when we're hustling, we're complicit in all of the systems that I really don't believe in."

Interrogating these systems and her role within them had left Merrill feeling heavy with guilt and grief and lost about how to move forward as a musician.  But then she began to rediscover the joy in making music.  Inspired by the Beastie Boys Book and Questlove’s Creative Quest, Merrill and Nate began jamming daily for hours in their home rehearsal studio “like athletes”.  They ditched computer screens for live instruments (Merrill on drums, Nate on bass) and before long full songs started to emerge.

Unlike the lyrical introspection of previous outing i can feel you..., on sketchy. Merrill balances self-inspection and reflection with bombastic rallying cries, reminiscent of the furious tones of early days Tune-Yards.  The result is a colorful and joyous record with lyrics that cut to the bone.  "I started remembering that people come to us to be entertained, to move, to feel joy.  And together, I think, we can wake up.”

sketchy. will be available digitally, and on CD and vinyl on 26th March. For pre-order information head to tune-yards.com.

Tune-Yards - sketchy.
4AD0309
1. nowhere, man
2. make it right.
3. hypnotized
4. homewrecker
5. silence pt. 1 (when we say “we”)
6. silence pt. 2 (who is “we”?)
7. hold yourself.
8. sometime
9. under your lip
10. my neighbor
11. be not afraid.