Amid the ever-competitive race for innovation within a saturated music scene, ‘Multi-Love’ by Unknown Mortal Orchestra is special. With the help of old synthesizers –which Ruban Nielson rebuilt himself – the new album borrows from many genres and sounds, but is something unique in its entirety. Funk, disco, soul, r’n’b and psychedelia inter-mesh to form a note-by-note aura of transcendental metamorphosis. Even Nielson’s voice has a different edge on each track. Sometimes his deeply melodic, from-within-a-tin-can vocals sound like they’re subdued by thick fog and sometimes sharpened by a stony rasp.
The air of transformation on ‘Multi-Love’ is inescapable. While UMO’s last album, ‘II’, was about loneliness, heartbreak and drug-fuelled neurosis, this one is, as Nielson says, “celebratory”. A more upbeat, electronic and modern spirit as opposed to their previous ‘60s psych rock, cassette sound weaves through the record. Although it’s still about love and relationships, it exudes a definite change in attitude.
The first single, ‘Multi-Love’, features cold, high-pitched vocals over a chirpy, computer-game-reminiscent melody and is about ‘a new kind of love’, maybe best expressed in the following lines: ‘We were one, then become three’. The combination of a pop-y sweetness and droning chill gives it an ambience no other UMO song has had before. ‘Can’t Keep Checking My Phone’ is just as novel. It starts off with a clapping intro that recalls the days of Miami Sound Machine, and then shifts into a busy disco tune, which in between times, has something of a distorted Hot Chocolate’s ‘I Believe in Miracles’. It’s new, ballsy and one to tap your feet to.
‘Puzzles’ starts off with destructive twangs, and morphs into a dreamy, southern guitar melody, which is interspersed by rackety garage rock with jittering riffs. Over this bed of harmonised noise, Nielson sings with a mellow passion. In the trumpet-spotted ‘Necessary Evil’, the beat is right behind his voice for a slow-moving funk song.
Remarkably, UMO’s third album is a massive stride ahead from previous albums. Thoughtfully crafted to perfection, it’s a stand-alone project with a funked-up heart that beats by itself. What’s more, the vibe is much more optimistic and experimental. ‘II’ was an album to be sad to, ‘Multi-Love’ is an album to dance, dream and explore to.
What really makes this album exceptional though is that if one dissects it into its elements, it’s an expansive library of sound history. Yet taken as a whole, it offers a look into the future: in a world of ever-increasing technology and accelerating creation, a pastiche of synthetic sounds is the key to being unique. Nielson gives this idea an ironic twist by making use of as much retro gear as possible to sound futuristic.
