Unknown Mortal Orchestra // Sex & Food

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Sex & Food

Jagjaguwar

4/5 Stars

Unknown Mortal Orchestra leading man Ruban Nielson taps into listeners' primal pleasure centers with Sex & Food, the experimental pop band's fourth album. Much like contemporaries Tame Impala, UMO draws heavily from the psychedelic rock and pop music of the 1960s and 1970s, in terms of production, instrumentation, and sound. The album's best asset might be in its dynamics; the ebbs and flows in mood and intensity, like those primitive urges after which it is titled. Take for instance the record's opening sequence: "Major League Chemicals" gets things off to a rollicking start, with a swell of high gain guitars, vintage electric piano, and an acrobatic bassline. Nielson proceeds to slow things down with the haunting "Ministry of Alienation," before starting to build things back up with "Hunnybee," sporting a sunny mid-tempo groove that will leave you with the warm fuzzies. Lest you be lulled into complacency with that and the counterintuitively soothing "Chronos Feasts On His Children," the fierce and gritty proto-metal of "American Guilt" comes along to tip you out of your rocking chair. Sex & Food simultaneously satisfies and unsettles, but is welcoming enough to invite you back for seconds. — Matt Swanseger