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 Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs on 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. It's songs came to Garbus and bandmate/partner Brenner with unusual ease, letting the songs come out, following any trail they wished. Four-on-the-floor "How Big is the Rainbow" drips with disco-house, queer-club, anthemic strobe energy. Better Dreaming is ferocious in it's invocation of self-love, collective action, 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 asks themselves how much literal energy and joy can be conjured and pumped through the music. In it's life-affirming art-pop of the apocalypse, Better Dreaming comes true. UPC: 191400081222
