Clever, quirky, upbeat, funky experimental pop by the Oakland, California married duo of Merrill Garbus and her bassist husband Nate Brenner with an LP borne out of lockdown, one filled with joy, serious insights, musical oddness, but also designed to loosen up the joints and get the whole body wiggling, and even featuring chirpy vocal clips from their three-year-old. The pair always manage to conjure a eclectic, rhythms, invention sounds, and this, whether mixing handclaps, tambourine, ukulele, or other sounds from out of the box, is no different. There’s an aura of happy family life across this LP, especially in the funky Limelight (“Seven years until we have a jubilee / Jubilee, jubilee / Kid, this is my shit, don't listen to me / It's all my shit, we'll all get free / We all get free … It was a miracle, you and me / And the dog and the cat, we all got free / We all got free in the family in the family”), and at the same time here’s always a plucky independence and feisty resilience about Garbus, whose vocal performance, ranges from soulful (Heartbreak or How Big Is the Rainbow) talking to screaming (the dark, brooding, psychedelic title track) to Limelight’s cheeky Tom Tom Club- or Talking Heads-type talk-singing also matches the energy of the music. Lyrics are often serious as as the music is inventively fun, variously challenging male authority, such as on Never Look Back, shame and hope on How Big Is the Rainbow, or identity and self-doubt on the jittery Sanctuary. Like an energetic Laurie Anderson, Garbus remains perpetually, restlessly clever, original and inventive. Out on 4AD.
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