V

Description

Created between Palm Springs (California) and Hilo (Hawaii), V is the first double album by the band Unknown Mortal Orchestra, led by multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and producer Hawaiian-New Zealander Ruban Nielson. V is the fifth album Ruban has released in twelve years. Through fourteen sun-drenched tracks—written solo or with his brother Kody—Ruban draws from the rich traditions of West Coast pop, yacht rock, and Hawaiian music. On a mix of sung anthems and highly cinematic instrumentals, he evokes blue skies, afternoons spent lounging by hotel pools, and the seductive darkness that can hide behind perfect, pristine surfaces. The record is heavily infused with 70s AM radio rock and 80s pop songs, genres that have lodged themselves in Ruban's subconscious throughout his life, genres inextricably linked to palm trees, pools, and the glamorous hedonism he has internalized since childhood. Another major influence on the record is a type of Hawaiian music called Hapa-haole. It is expressed in the style of Unknown Mortal Orchestra through the humid atmosphere of the penultimate song on V, “I Killed Captain Cook.” Although the pieces are presented in a traditional Hawaiian manner, they are primarily sung in English. Influenced by Hawaiian music since the first album of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ruban has drawn from this tradition. He has taken on the responsibility and duty to represent Hapa-haole music on the global stage.