Nikki Nack

Pop music needs more artists who are truly willing to seize the spotlight. Annoying as we might find some of these attention-seekers, they’re the ones who make the biggest impact beyond the steady flow of new material and regular touring. Contemporary artists with the most devout followings are the likes of Kanye West and Lady Gaga: there will always be detractors denouncing their more outré tendencies as pretentious, gimmicky, or simply baffling, but ultimately, these are the performers that we remember once the earworms have crawled out of our minds.

Although she’s yet to break big in the same way as Gaga and co, tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus has a similarly arresting command of her audience. As 2010’s WHOKILL demonstrated, Garbus is capable of channelling her own infectious, giddy energy directly into her music without tainting its creative integrity. Even during her more left-field offerings, every lyric she gasps, whispers, or shrieks is utterly compelling. “Oh my God, I use my lungs,” she breathes halfway through the seesawing ‘Real Thing’, and indeed, here is an artist who recognises her talents, and she’s not afraid to flaunt them on Nikki Nack; a delightful album whose primary author is unafraid to bend and contort pop music into freakish and fun new shapes.

Joined by bass-player and indispensable musical partner Nate Brenner, Garbus’ project is the perfect antidote to the overly-cagey indie groups scooping the plaudits elsewhere. The world of tUnE-yArDs is a playground; an open space where bass melodies hopscotch breezily, synthesisers flit like toys being thrown about, and leading the charge from atop the climbing frame – her face streaked with pastel paints – is Garbus herself, who invests every pore of Nikki Nack with her own indomitably spirited personality. What emerges are thirteen songs resembling some of the strangest nursery rhymes imaginable, all set to chaotic, intelligent pop-hop.

The world of tUnE-yArDs is a playground; an open space where bass melodies hopscotch breezily, synthesisers flit like toys being thrown about

If this all sounds like one huge sugar crash, it’ll come as a relief to know that these colourful arrangements are skewered with fierce indictments of political and cultural sequestration, which simultaneously juxtaposes and strengthens the peculiarities of the music. Lead single ‘Water Fountain’ is a perfect example of such alchemy, and is already in serious contention for single-of-the-year status. Over clacking rhythms and brushes of 8-bit keyboards, Garbus chants about dehydration and socioeconomic disparity, conjuring up some grimly cartoonish allegories along the way: “He gave me a dollar / A blood-soaked dollar / I cannot get the spot out / But it’s-okay-it-still-works-in-the-store”. This particular episode is then rapidly subsumed beneath an increasingly frenetic atmosphere, as multi-layered vocals and glitchy effects embellish the song’s compulsive chorus into a seemingly ecstatic (but ultimately bitter) finale. Subversive or not, expect ubiquity from this one come the frolicsome months of summer.

This is indicative of the main drive of Nikki Nack as a whole: forever underlying the playful chirrups and elasticated vocal patterns are shades of menace and unease. The lumbering electro of ‘Stop That Man’ centres on dissatisfaction with figures of authority; the dejected ‘Wait for a Minute’ is an tenderly muted study of a depressive creative block; and ‘Find a New Way’ chronicles Garbus’ insecurities as an artist, and pulls off the tightrope-walk of sounding genuine but not indulgent. Best of the bunch is ‘Time of Dark’: a nocturnal sojourn anchored by Brenner’s essential bass work, which swells into an electrifying crescendo of tribal yelps. As Garbus scans a future filled with treachery, she confides some words of wisdom to the new generation: “your music’s in your pocket with a power you can’t even imagine it will bring”. Dark times are these, but the tUnE-yArDs have delivered a defiant rebuke to complacency, by indulging their imaginations in thrilling and refreshing fashion.

Nikki Nack is more unbridled and sporadic than WHOKILL, but it’s just as captivating; a veritable pick-and-mix of catchy tunes and impressive theatricalities. There’s not much holding it together conceptually, but this scattershot approach perfectly complements the project’s style. With Nikki Nack, Garbus has made a bold attempt to brighten the contemporary pop landscape while addressing issues of genuine gravitas, and she’s done an admirable job. Take a tumble into tUnE-yArDs’ playground, and relish one of the most arresting albums of the year so far.

Similar To: Dirty Projectors, Here We Go Magic

MP3: ‘Water Fountain’, ‘Time of Dark’, ‘Hey Life’