Unknown Mortal Orchestra: II [JAGJAGUWAR]

Why you'll love it

This Jagjaguwar pressing comes with a lyrics inner sleeve and a download card. II won Best Alternative Album at the 2013 New Zealand Music Awards and scored 78 on Metacritic from 27 reviews.

This edition

• Lyrics inner sleeve
• Download card included

About the album

Most bands book a studio; Ruban Nielson mostly booked himself as the engineer. The New Zealand-born songwriter wrote II, recorded it himself and played most of it, bringing in his brother Kody on drums for much of the record, Chris Nielson on horns for "One At A Time" and Jacob Portrait on bass for "No Need For A Leader."

The sound is warm, wobbly and hooky, like a soul record left out in the sun. "From The Sun" opens with a trippy lo-fi haze, "Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)" pairs sleepiness with a little unease, and "So Good At Being In Trouble" is one of the loveliest slow jams of its decade. "Monki" stretches out into a long psychedelic drift, and the closer "Secret Xtians" arrives with a guitar sound AllMusic likened to a funky Hendrix ballad. Joe Lambert mastered it, and NME heard the band matching raw melody with real attention to detail.

The cover photo shows the author Janet Farrar, taken by her husband Stewart Farrar. It's quite a stare, and it has been keeping record shop browsers honest ever since.

Also at Kops: more Unknown Mortal Orchestra on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Jagjaguwar (cat# JAG232), the 2013 album.