Merrill Garbus, best known as the drum-looping, ukelele-playing Afro-Pop channeler Tune-Yards, first teased fans with her new album Nikki Nack by unveiling an album MegaMix on her birthday. The wait is now over, with Garbus announcing the LP’s first proper single, Water Fountain.
Following on from 2011’s universally praised Whokill, which topped the Village Voice‘s prestigious year-end Pazz & Jop poll, Nikki Nack, Tune-Yards’ third full-length outing, continues Garbus’ playful, schoolyard-chant rhythms, unique instrumentation, and colourful, stream-of-consciousness lyrics.
The album was inspired by, among other things, getting reacquainted with ’80s children’s show Pee Wee’s Playhouse and a trip to Haiti. Garbus enlisted producers Malay (Frank Ocean, Alicia Keys) and John Hill (Rihanna, M.I.A.) to bring her vivid, idiosyncratic palette to life for her fans.
Check out all of this week’s new music right here!
Listen: Tune-Yards – Water Fountain
