Tune-Yards, the dynamic duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, release new single ‘Heartbreak’, the second offering from their upcoming album, Better Dreaming, out 16 May, showcasing some of their most effortlessly groove-filled music to date. ‘Heartbreak’ is the album’s opening track, building huge chords of Garbus’ vocal harmony around a fat slow-jam beat full of clicks, pops, samples, and dubbed snares. Garbus, soulful as ever, sings of heartbreak as fuel, as a challenge. In the world of Better Dreaming, a lyric like, “Watch me survive another heartbreak” hits like a call to action. The track is accompanied by a dynamic self-directed video, shot by DOP Sarah Jaffe. ‘Heartbreak’ follows the infectious first single, ‘Limelight’, born from dancing together as a family to George Clinton, with Garbus and Brenner’s 3-year-old heard singing on the track.
Today Tune-Yards also announce their UK and European headline tour for November including a performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 22 November. This follows a run of US tour dates in May and June, their first U.S. headlining tour since 2022, with additional September shows supporting Ani DiFranco. Performing as a duo, Garbus and Brenner will bring Better Dreaming to life, offering fans a rare chance to experience the album’s vitality and messages up close. Known for their electrifying live performances – where layered rhythms, looping beats, and Garbus’ powerhouse vocals collide – these shows promise a versatile return to the stage.
Tickets for UK and European shows go on sale this Friday 11 April at 10am local time.
More on Better Dreaming
Distraction, depression, and heartbreak reign supreme in 2025. “Making art in this day and age for me is a battle for focus; we’re in an age of interruption,” says Garbus of Tune-Yards’ sixth album Better Dreaming. Proudly waving an anti-fascist, liberation, freak flag, Better Dreaming contains some of Tune-Yards smoothest, funkiest, and most direct pop music to date, and yes, you can dance to it. And when you do dance to it, be prepared to sweat out something that’s been long stuck inside, and pretty deep down.
The songs of Better Dreaming came to Garbus and Brenner with unusual ease. They asked themselves what would happen if they simply let the songs come out, following any trail they wished – first thought, best thought style. There was a strong desire to move, to make music that would enter the ear and immediately loosen up the joints, get the whole body wiggling. After covid-isolation, and time away from touring and live shows, the desire to be moved by music was undeniable. The insane experience of growing an actual human being influenced this as well.
The rhythms throughout the record carry a certain freshness, with deep pockets full of subtle idiosyncrasies that stem from Tune-Yards’ return to making an album primarily as a duo. All but one of these songs are built around Garbus’ drum looping and rhythm building, as they were on some of the early albums like Bird-Brains and W H O K I L L – no full kit drummer here, and the songs love it.
Better Dreaming is ferocious in its invocation of self-love, of collective action, of dance floor liberation, ego-death deliverance, and a future we could all thrive in. When diving into the present darkness of the world, Tune-Yards ask themselves how much literal energy and joy can be conjured and pumped through the music. In its life-affirming art-pop of the apocalypse, Better Dreaming comes true. Better Dreaming is out on 16 May on all digital platforms, CD, standard black vinyl and clear blue wave vinyl (indie retail only).
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