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::k4:
a r t i s t :: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
t i t l e :: Multi-Love
d a t e :: 2015-00-00
l a b e l :: Jagjaguwar
g e n r e :: Psychedelic Rock
s o u r c e :: CD
b i t r a t e :: 253 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: LAME 3.98.4 -V 0
t r a c k s :: 9
p l a y t i m e :: 41:03
s i z e :: 73.67MB
tracklist
1 Multi-Love 4:10
2 Like Acid Rain 2:02
3 Ur Life One Night 4:27
4 Can't Keep Checking My Phone 4:16
5 Extreme Wealth And Casual Cruelty 6:04
6 The World Is Crowded 4:19
7 Stage Or Screen 3:26
8 Necessary Evil 5:17
9 Puzzles 7:02
releasenotes
Unknown Mortal Orchestra's music is like a game of hide-and-seek, revealing
one thing only to bury another. Blink and youÆll miss the guitar in the
beginning of Multi-LoveÆs "The World Is Crowded" because a burst of synths
comes in and saturate the track to a pure white hum. If you donÆt catch the
anxieties and heartbreaks of polyamorous love, itÆs because Ruban Nielson has
compressed and phased his voice down to a thin analog texture. Falling for UMO
is as easy as taking time to look for what Nielson conceals in his songs. It
can be a vintage Crumar synth tangled in the mix, or him pondering if someone
would listen to his "silly voice" on the last day of their life; a loose
hi-hat on the off-beat subtly driving the verse into the chorus, or him
thinking his wifeÆs love for him is her "fatal flaw."
For as tuned-in and specific as it is, Multi-Love is multivalent. Next to some
baroque '60s beat music thereÆs a Zappa homage, propped up against a dance
track you could find on a Giorgio Moroder record, followed by some pigeon-toed
funk that you should probably do a bunch of drugs to. ItÆs a wunderkammer
inside, cramped with hundreds of tiny gestures, musical and lyrical. Recall,
this is a guy whoÆs obsessed with taking huge pop ideas, like "How Can You Luv
Me" off his debut album, and turning them completely inward. That song could
be a Bruno Mars No. 1 hit in the hands of a major label producer. But Nielson
is a fussy gear-head who loves psychedelia, shredding on his guitar without a
pick, and, well, making music to do a bunch of drugs to. All the pop songs are
buried deep in the mossy soul of Multi-Love.
Nielson produced, mixed, and engineered the entirety of Multi-Love. Some
back-end teams work hard to hide in the shadows and feel that if they do their
job well, the listener wonÆt even notice any production. Nielson is the
opposite of that. The production is so central itÆs almost another character
on the album, corroding and tripping out the instruments, and compressing drum
tracks down so they can fit in the palm of your hand. At times it feels like
youÆre listening to the album with un-popped ears. Once in a while, on simpler
songs like the mid-tempo "Stage or Screen" or the obtuse motown-soul of "Ur
Life One Night", make this vintage sheen feel like a crutch rather than a
purposeful tool.
Nielson's ear for how something should sound is unparalleled, and his
fastidious choices behind the boards are a large part of what makes Multi-Love
a joy to listen to. It's as if he tried to make Stevie WonderÆs Innervisions
and PrinceÆs Sign æOÆ the Times in secret, so as not to wake the kids
upstairsùprivate celebrations and private exorcisms. The most outspoken
Nielson gets is on "CanÆt Keep Checking My Phone", a single worthy of Larry
LevanÆs crate at Paradise Garage as some one-off flamenco disco track stuck
near the end of the set. Underneath the spacey dance party, Nielson lays out a
bittersweet song about missing someone you love, while the other person you
love is right by your side.
In a recent profile, Nielson said, "Think about the two most serious
relationships in your life so far, and then experiencing them simultaneously."
Polyamory is an emotionally and spiritually dense topic to approach on an
album, and, for someone with a third-eye tattoo, Nielson mostly avoids
speaking in hempy clichΘs. Save for some grand overtures on the title track
that actually feel more expository than anything else, his laments about these
two women in his life are as finely portioned as the music below it. He ropes
his feelings under universal themes on "Extreme Wealth and Casual Cruelty".
Who wouldn't want to abandon it all and start over again as "just strangers"
without the strictures of money or society? It's a story as old as time, only
in Nielson's case, it just happens to be star-triple-cross'd lovers.
This is Nielson's most accomplished album, though it's not his most direct, or
brash, or explosive. Those are moods he mostly saves that for the closer,
"Puzzles". The seven-minute song serves as a tacked-on coda with overdriven
'70s hard rock guitar and Nielson stretching the capacity of his vocals to a
bluesy peak. It will kill live, as will most of these songs which will bend
into longer, louder psych forms in rock clubs. But "Puzzles" feels broad and
out of place here, despite its charms. Maybe it's the "Electioneering" outlier
of an album with such an evocative mood. I think there's more to be found in
the horn part on the endlessly melodic "Necessary Evil", played by Nielson's
father. It's soft as Muzak, a simple up-and-down melody with smooth swing
rhythm. When Nielson coos the words "necessary evil," the horn line just
shifts forward one beat in the measure, making it sound entirely different
while actually staying the exact same. It's one small link in a long chain of
moments strung together seamlessly and imbued with so much.
http://unknownmortalorchestra.com
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Unknown_Mortal_Orchestra-Multi-Love-(JAG262)-CD-2015-k4