The Oakland-based outfit Tune-Yards have announced a new studio album called sketchy., which is set to be released on March 26 on vinyl, CD and digitally. This new album is set to include the single “hold yourself,” which is accompanied by an animated music video directed by Basa Studio.

“Hold yourself,” uses cutout animation that focuses on a red-haired circle walking throughout a large city, with occasional appearances from the Tune-Yards’ band members. The track is a soothing blend of indie, alternative funk and jazz, with robust saxophone instrumentation, soulful vocals and light keyboard melodies. “This song is about feeling really betrayed, by my parents’ generation, and at the same time, really seeing how we are betraying the future,” the group’s Merrill Garbus explained in a press release.

Their upcoming record sketchy. is also set to include the single “nowhere man,” which came out last September and featured an homage to legendary filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. Their latest studio album I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life came out in 2018, the same year when Tune-Yards composed the score for Boots Riley’s directorial debut Sorry to Bother You.

Their work on both projects, alongside their touring schedules, caused the Tune-Yards to reevaluate their position within the music industry and their recording process. They also sought out to use live instrumentation, avoiding the use of a computer as much as possible. “We had really been non-stop hustling. And when we’re hustling, we’re complicit in all of the systems that I really don’t believe in,” Garbus elaborated.

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.

Photo Credit: Owen Ela