Due out May 2nd, Nikki Nack – the third album from tUnE-yArDs – was first announced when Merrill Garbus celebrated her birthday by posting a ‘MegaMix’ of album tracks online. Delighting fans, she’s teased everyone long enough and is now ready to reveal more album details.
Succeeding 2011’s W H O K I L L (an album that featured prominently in most year end lists, even topping the Village Voice’s highly prestigious Pazz & Jop poll), Nikki Nack is brilliantly playful, more than matching its jump-rope-chant title. Experiences in her time off between albums proved to be influential in its songwriting process; a life-affirming trip to Haiti, her upbringing, and finally catching up with 80s kid’s TV programme Pee Wee’s Playhouse some 25 years since its first broadcast were all topics at the forefront of Merrill’s mind that helped to shape and colour the record.
Eager to never stand still, Merrill enlisted producers Malay (Frank Ocean, Alicia Keys, Big Boi) and John Hill (Rihanna, Shakira, M.I.A.) on some tracks; “I had to let go of tUnE-yArDs being rigidly my production. I have a very specific vision for the sound of the band and I don’t think women producers get enough credit for doing their own stuff, so I was resistant – but we grew, Nate and I both, and the songs grew. And it turns out that’s what’s most important: the songs, not my ego,” she says.
tUnE-yArDs – Nikki Nack
1. Find A New Way
2. Water Fountain
3. Time Of Dark
4. Real Thing
5. Look Around
6. Hey Life
7. Sink-O
8. Why Do We Dine On The Tots?
9. Stop That Man
10. Wait For A Minute
11. Left Behind
12. Rocking Chair
13. Manchild
tUnE-yArDs – Nikki Nack is out Friday 2nd May via 4AD / Rhythmethod
