Tune-Yards Detail New Album ‘sketchy’ & Share ‘hold yourself’ Single

Tune-Yards announced a new album, sketchy, is due out on March 26 through 4AD. The duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner also shared the single, “hold yourself.”

sketchy is the pair’s first studio album since 2018’s i can feel you creep into my private life. That record was a culmination of a decade of relentless work which left Garbus in a reflective state of mind.

“We had really been non-stop hustling,” she said in a statement. “And when we’re hustling, we’re complicit in all of the systems that I really don’t believe in.”

But inspired by the Beastie Boys Book and Questlove’s Creative Quest, the duo began making music again, jamming for hours “like athletes.” They swapped computer screens for live instruments, with Garbus on drums and Brenner on bass.

“I started remembering that people come to us to be entertained, to move, to feel joy,” Garbus added. “And together, I think, we can wake up.”

The new single “hold yourself” follows Tune-Yards’ 2020 single, “nowhere, man,” which is the opening track on sketchy. Garbus spoke about the new single as well.

“This song is about feeling really betrayed, by my parents’ generation,” she explained, “and at the same time, really seeing how we are betraying the future.”

“hold yourself” arrived with an accompanying music video by Basa Studio. Watch it below:

sketchy Tracklist:

1. nowhere, man
2. make it right.
3. hypnotized
4. homewrecker
5. silence pt. 1 (when we say “we”)
6. silence pt. 2 (who is “we”?)
7. hold yourself.
8. sometime
9. under your lip
10. my neighbor
11. be not afraid.