| Multi-Love | ||||
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| Released | 26 May 2015 | |||
| Recorded | 2015 | |||
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| Length | 41:03 | |||
| Label | Jagjaguwar | |||
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| Unknown Mortal Orchestra chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Multi-Love | ||||
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Multi-Love is the third studio album from the New Zealand band Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It was released on 26 May 2015.[1] Frontman and primary contributor Ruban Nielson produced, mixed, and engineered the entirety of Multi-Love. He explored themes such as euphoria, loneliness, existentialism and emotional exhaustion. The title Multi-Love is a reference to the intense polyamorous relationship which Ruban Nielson had with his wife and a younger woman for a year, before her visa expired and the relationship ended. The topic is a prevalent theme in the album's lyrics, and Nielson has won acclaim for how he made such topics into music form, and portraying sexual experimentation in a positive light.[2] The fallout from the relationship and subsequent personal transformations for Ruban, his wife Jenny, and the younger woman is the basis of the album's existential themes, and contributes to an eventual catharsis and reckoning with the past Ruban had, once he could finally let go from his bygone "multi-love".[3]
The album won the 2015 APRA Silver Scroll for Best Alternative Album.[4] Considered the band's global breakthrough, Multi-Love made it onto lists by The Guardian, NME and Consequence of Sound for the best albums of 2015. Singles "Multi-Love" and "Can't Keep Checking My Phone" were both A-listed at BBC's 6 Music.[5] Alongside Tame Impala's Currents, it was sometimes labelled one of two major critically acclaimed works of psychedelic music in 2015. The album debuted at number 14 in New Zealand, number 44 in the United Kingdom, and at number 7 on the American Billboard Independent Charts. Like its predecessors, the album received critical acclaim, and appeared on various critics' lists of the best albums of 2015. In October 2019, Multi-Love placed at no.18 on Happy Mag's list of "The 25 best psychedelic rock albums of the 2010s".
- ^ Coplan, Chris (5 February 2015). "Unknown Mortal Orchestra announce new album, Multi-Love". Consequence of Sound.
- ^ Hutchinson, Kate (9 June 2015). "Unknown Mortal Orchestra: 'I can't tell what I'm supposed to keep private now'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ "Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multi-Love". Pitchfork. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ "Nielson Brothers Awarded 2015 APRA Silver Scroll". UnderTheRadarNZ. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ "Unknown Mortal Orchestra". Archived from the original on 27 July 2011.