Unknown Mortal Orchestra-”So Good at Being in Trouble”

Unknown Mortal Orchestra have released a second song off their forthcoming sophomore release II, due out next month.  All I can say is that I’m even more excited about this album now that I’ve heard this quite soulful and groove-filled second track.

Right off the bat it sounds like an instant classic.  Something you’d come across playing on some out-of-the-way radio dial position during a late night car ride home.  Maybe you’re kind of down -or just really buzzed- but the song pulls you out of that mood and head space for it’s 3 minute length, just long enough to make you feel nostalgic for another time.  It’s like this song is being beamed from another world.  A world much like ours -a mirrored version-  only this is a carnival mirror.  Things pulled and twisted in an unnatural way, yet there’s still that sense of recognizable warmth.  I get that feeling when I listen to UMO.  There’s something not quite right, yet if it were tweaked to something more “normal”, then it would lose it’s woozy magic.  I don’t think anyone else could create what Ruban Nielson creates.  The cassette tape-muffled sound…the grainy tones…the sephia-colored vibe is exactly as it should be.  Nieson paints with watered-down colors and warped, otherworldly canvases.  Any sort of “polishing” would reveal vapors and nothingness.  Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s music is like the mirage in the desert.  Keep your distance and there’s something magical about it, but get too close and it’s gone.

I’ll keep my distance and bask in the magic of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.