sketchy.

The Needle Drop 7/10 Sketchy is a nice bounceback for Tune-Yards.

NME 4/5 ‘Sketchy’ takes the best, feral pulses from tUnE-yArDs’ DIY material and the richest sounds of later records in its doubling down on societal crises.

The Line of Best Fit 8/10 Sketchy is a bold album in so many ways but it’s also incredibly, comfortingly Tune-Yards: High energy, offbeat movements, looped vocals, powerful cries, incredible rhythms, a belief that fighting for what is right is the only option.

Rolling Stone 4/5 Merrill Garbus’ body- rattling mutant New Wave is at once thrilling and decentering, but it’s her incisive songwriting that makes her fifth LP a treat.

Dork 4/5 More grown-up and considered, this could be a new peak for tUnE-yArDs and they couldn’t have timed this release any better for society’s collective sanity if they tried.

DIY 4/5 Though unlikely to win over those who weren’t already fans, ‘sketchy.’ is a more mature offering than previous Tune-Yards records though still retains much of the tripped-out whimsy that first made them so infectious.

The Forty Five 3.5/5 Loose optimism and tight despair drive the album in equal measure, and while sometimes ‘sketchy.’ is too vague to land, at other moments, it shoots straight at the heart

All Music 4/5 tUnE-yArDs haven't sounded this infectious since Nikki Nack, and Sketchy. captures the inflection point where frustration becomes positive action in funky, happy, angry, and inspiring ways.

The Skinny 4/5 Despite its name, there’s nothing ambiguous about Tune-Yards’ return. They’re back with bombast and the permission to take a breather if it all gets too much.

Gigwise 7/10 If you’re happy to just off on some soaring, joyous and celebratory music – even when the message is a little less sunny – then this is for you. The sound of Tune-Yards really hitting their stride and honing their art to new refinement - rather than new extremes.

Mojo 4/5 Ultimately, by opening up melodically as well as rhythmically, Garbus and Brenner better reveal the big heart at the centre of Tune-Yards.

Loud and Quiet 7/10 It’s easy to overlook how effortlessly Tune-Yards make songs about self-doubt sound so curiously stirring.

Pop Matters 8/10 It's the artist's duty to sing and dance, teach and sermonize. Tune-Yards practice what they preach there, even if their conclusions may seem a bit... sketchy.

The Guardian 4/5 Themes of climate disaster, gender dysphoria and fighting privilege bubble up through a discomfiting but enjoyable sonic deluge.

Beats Per Minute 71% sketchy. may not be their out-and-out best work, but it’s proof that they still have the guts and the songwriting ability — as well as their ever-present, obvious earnestness and candor — to do what endeared so many to their work in the first place.

The Irish Times 4/5 Sketchy is a type of treatise on this ambivalence – critiquing systems while participating in those systems.

Uncut 8/10 Anger is the fuel for Sketchy. — anger at misogyny, gentrification, power structures, but also one’s own role in those systems — but the record itself isn't angry, fizzing instead with a creative fire.