Nikki Nack
5 May 2014
4AD
4.5 stars out of 5
Merrill Garbus’s third LP under the tUnE-yArDs letterhead, Nikki Nack, sees her continuing to
explore the intersection of eccentric blues vocals and experimental
Afrobeat-ish percussion. Garbus doesn’t have many peers in the genre she’s
pioneered—one could draw comparisons to TV on the Radio, or other, less secure
comparisons to Meryn Cadell or (if you want to go wayyy back) ESG, but none of these comparisons would be all that
accurate. No matter what label you want to attach to her or what genre you want
to file her under, Nikki Nack is her
best record yet, a triumph of… well, whatever it is that she does.
There are no real album highlights here, as the whole album
is one extended highlight. “Sink-O” is possibly the best song I’ve heard all
year, though I haven’t heard your rendition of “Happy Birthday” drunkenly sung
to your girl/boyfriend that disastrous cold night in February when you forgot
her/his name and substituted the name of your ex instead. Everything here is
not only good, but great, even the bizarre story-time intermission that is “Why
Do We Dine on the Tots?” On Nikki Nack,
Garbus’s lyrics are sharper, her vocals are both more refined and more
powerful, and her arrangements are more ambitious and more engaging.
tUnE-yArDs have mastered and continue to develop the art of
creating incredibly challenging music that is also incredibly catchy. This is
high brow art you can dance to and sing along to. While Garbus pushes her vocal
melodies further into R&B/pop territory, she also pushes her music further
into the experimental. Worried that in a few weeks “Water Fountain” will be
heard on that crappy radio station at work, sandwiched between Katy and Ri-Ri?
Not bloody likely. Garbus will never be mainstream, not even in a Talking Heads’
“Once in a Lifetime” kind of way, so relax.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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