Album Review: Tune Yards, Better Dreaming

“We’re in an age of interruption,” said Merrill Garbus, speaking about some of the themes on Tune-Yards’ new LP, Better Dreaming. “Making art in this day and age… is a battle for focus.”

For both Garbus and fellow band member/husband Nate Brenner, you get the feeling there’s a lot that could swing them off course. The duo – who specialise in understated alt-rock not a million miles from Radiohead – have been more vocal than most when it comes to geopolitical issues.

But this has perhaps come at the price of not knowing what music to offer the world in its current fraught climate.

On Better Dreaming, their solution is to work inward and embrace a joyfully weird indie-pop sound. This album finds Garbus’ vocals more soulful than ever, which allows many of the songs’ quiet sociopolitical mantras to really ring true (including the politically-minded ‘Swarm’: “Turn away from those who hate you / Turn away / And we become the swarm”).

Towards the end of the album, meanwhile, there are several rewards, as the duo get introspective on the groovy ‘How Big Is The Rainbow’ and the stirring ‘Perpetual Motion’.

• Out now: