Tune-Yards: I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life (4AD/Rhythmethod)

At some indiscernible moment in time (possibly in the early Seventies when the antennae were high) someone posited the notion that “the personal is political”.

And a generation prepared to believe any slogan embraced it. And its converse position.

The political is personal?

Yep. Because that seems more true in the US at this moment than in era since . . . Well, couple of Bush presidents, Reagan, Nixon . . . and let's not forget the personal awfulness of Bill Clinton.

Such widescreen thinking comes to mind – but not in bad way – with this new album by Tune-Yards where the personal/political interface (referred to in its title) is contained within often startlingly aggressive electro-slash driven by pinpoint beats and the commanding voice of Merrill Garbus.

Garbus' lyrics sometimes come off like cut-ups and shuffles of metaphors and personal emotions, sometimes colliding with head-spinning speed as the subject matters shift, as on the terrific Coast to Coast.

ABC123 is punchy Eighties pop take on California burning down but also about Garbus' (white, educated) place in modern America and doubting what she's been brought to believe.

Coloniser takes the electro-scalpel to her “white woman's voice” and positions of privilege, Now As Then is equally full of personal (and broadly political in its feminism) doubts and questions.

You can guess the almost elegant voice she brings to Who Are You adds almost existential weight to that title. But at the same time Private Life is like a Spice Girls pop song dragged through the blender of electrostatic, urgency and philosophical questioning.

If there's a flaw at the heart of this otherwise excellent 12-song collection it is the tendency for the tumble of imagery, ideas and words to bury themselves. These are songs which effect pop sensibilities but sometimes need decoding, which rather strips many of them of the sheer pleasure they offer on other levels.

No matter maybe, because the sonic firepower which Garbus and Nate Brenner (whose melodic bass is mixed huge) unleash at times really brings this one home . . . and Garbus has a voice and scope (Kate Bush to Grace Jones via Daptone soul) which demands to be heard.