UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
V (Jagjaguwar)
Hawaiian-New Zealand musician Ruban Nielson leads Unknown Mortal Orchestra back into psych-pop land on this expansive double album, throwing elements of West Coast AOR in the mix and returning to the Roman numeral naming theme after breakthrough Multi-Love and the underrated Sex & Food. With brother Kody, dad Chris on sax and flute and Jake Portrait on bass, this suite of loosely conceptual songs may not have the ferocity of American Guilt or sweetness of Hunnybee from its predecessor but hangs together as a road trip taking in the coast and the highways.
That Life makes good with Steely Dan/AOR pristine pop, the reggae-inflected Layla is Eric Clapton’s version of I Shot The Sheriff run through Lee Scratch Perry’s phasers, Weekend Run is a breezy top-down cruise with the sun on your face… and ahead of it is the 60s psych whimsy of In The Rear View, the sinister undertones beneath the ultraviolet of The Garden and Meshuggah, a drivetime classic in waiting.
The album peters out a little at the end with the lo-fi acoustics of I Killed Captain Cook and Drag, whose laidback groove proves difficult to sustain for nearly six minutes, but there are plenty of signs of paradise here.
words CHRIS SEAL
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