Review: Multi-Love by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s previous albums have mostly been of the lo-fi persuasion, although the band’s pop sensibilities have been peeking out more with every successive release. With Multi-Love, their third, that sensibility breaks out and threatens to take over. It’s bouncy like the 70s and playful like the 80s, the optimism hiding a disconnected feeling inherent in lyrics of songs such as “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone”. It leads to some interesting themes, the sort that the music – the pop and the lo-fi sides grappling for supremacy – can’t seem to keep up with. But maybe that is the point. As Multi-Love goes on and the sound gets a bit wearier, the depths of the whole disconnect thing becomes a bit more complicated, a spectrum of extremes suddenly co-existing, barely. This is my way of explaining a complex record. I failed, and perhaps that is the point. [NB] | 4/5