Review: tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l

tUnE-yArDs - My Country

For some music fans, the first half of 2011 has been a disappointing one, with few brights spots to cheer up an otherwise off year. The good news is that this trend has hit a brick wall, head on, with the release of tUnE-yArDs' second album, w h o k i l l. Songwriter Merrill Garbus creates an immediately satisfying record, filled to the brim with swirling layered vocals, skillful ukuleles, and a newly added saxophone section, all charged with Garbus' irresistible energy.

The main thing that Garbus' debut album, BiRd-BrAiNs had going for it was the promise of an artist trying to make something unique. While she made it her own, the album suffered from tin-can production that crowded her tremendous voice. All in all, it was a solid debut. w h o k i l l is, at the same time, surprising and unsurprising in its growth. The production has noticeably been taken up a notch, distancing itself from BiRd-BrAiNs, yet not so much as to scare off older fans who found warmth in its domestic atmosphere. Production qualities are barely even the main priority here though, and only serve to compliment the inherent largeness of the songs , which almost all hit a feverishly energetic pace that rarely, and only necessarily, slows down.

tUnE-yArDs is undoubtedly driven by Garbus' magnificent vocal tone. She displays a range of qualities in every single song, from using every ounce of her body to produce a large bellow, to harmonizing in a 50's era, evangelical style, like on "Doorstep". Not only can she do this with her voice, but most songs are layered with many tracks of vocals, producing dissonance or harmony at a second's notice. The layering of voices is a strong tool in this album, creating a chirping, bird-like effect on "Bizness", or a tornado alarm of vocal melodies on "Gangsta". In contrast, Garbus also knows exactly when to shut out everything else and let just her voice shine through. The best example is the song "Riotriot", where she howl that she does not understand a certain freedom in violence. The same song also has a strong showing of the new saxophone section to the band. The horns are used sparingly, but with necessity to underscore the climax to this, and other songs.

What may very likely be the strongest parts of the album is the fluid structure of the songs themselves. Garbus (and it should be noted, bassist Nate Brenner) seem to let the songs write themselves. The songs never change so much as to be unrecognizable with earlier parts, but each song moves and climbs so effortlessly into new vocal and saxophone arrangements that it feels as if they just fell into place from the get-go.

It's evident that Merrill Garbus is at the top of her creative game, and like her energetic qualities would presume, there are no signs that this will slow down anytime soon. For now, this is the perfect record to kick off the merriment of summer, and while it wears its catchiness on its sleeve, its just challenging and quirky enough that this is going to be one record you don't stop spinning until you've explored every space it has to offer.