For those claiming that Tune-Yards doesn’t appear androgynous, then maybe listen again to this (and mentally compare the vocals to, say, David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors on Bitte Orca - which is the obvious, and to my mind and personal taste, superior comparison). She sounds like - and kinda looks like - a man a lot of the time here, and there’s nothing wrong about that, obviously.
Another thing in that Klosterman article which seems to raise more profound objections is his cynical assessment of her future career trajectory:
“She could end up like James Murphy or Cat Power. But it’s just as possible — in fact, more possible — that this will not happen. She will probably just make a bunch more albums of varying quality, none of which will get the collective adoration of w h o k i l l. And then Garbus will end up with this bizarre 40-year-old life, where her singular claim to fame will be future people saying things like, “Hey, remember that one winter when we all thought tUnE-yArDs was supposed to be brilliant? That fucking puppeteer? Were we all high at the same time? What was wrong with us?”
Aside from the (sarcastic) nastiness at the end, it’s not impossible to read that sympathetically - we all have been excited about artists that seemed to embody the zeitgeist, or more importantly, challenge the staid setting of culture they found themselves in, only to find a year later that things are different but the same (artists, setting). Equally, I get the response by Sophie here:
“We all make this mistake on occasion, assuming that because we don’t fit in an artists audience their music is bad or of little consequence (and sometimes it’s true, too). What bothers me is that in both of these cases, the parties involved (Chuck Klosterman and LDR’s audience) represent a demographic that is CONSTANTLY pandered to. For the concerns of those outside that group to be treated as silly or delusional (a stereotypical accusation), is all the more proof that sexism is alive and well, and even a distanced nostalgia for a time when it was socially acceptable (which LDR’s music displays) is worse than reversing what marginalized people have been working towards since the days of Ellen Willis, it’s spinning car around and flooring it in the opposite direction.”
But maybe you can take Klosterman’s ill-phrased but undeniably engaging comments and see them as a challenge, to either cement the significance of one’s favoured artists (more good writing! is I guess all I’ve got, though) or reject that somewhat patriarchal/rockist canon of success and establish oneself as a genuine counterculture (this is the argument I’d apply to punk, mostly). Either way, it’s probably more constructive to accentuate and advance the positive rather than, rightly or wrongly, take issue with where Klosterman himself is coming from.
I’m still not sure whether I can personally tolerate Tune-Yards sound, but some of the lyrics (which, um, switch between genders?) are very interesting and rather apropos to this whole issue:
“What’s a girl to do if she’ll never be a rasta
Singin’ from her heart, but she’ll never be a rasta
If you move into her neighborhood, she’ll never make a sound”
