Created between Palm Springs, California and Hilo, Hawai'i, 'V' is the first double album from the Hawaiian-New Zealand singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ruban Nielson's Unknown Mortal Orchestra band. Designed to play as one continuous movement and road-tested on dry California freeways, 'V' is the definitive Unknown Mortal Orchestra car record. It's also the fifth full-length album Ruban has released in twelve years. Across fourteen sunbleached songs - written solo or with his brother Kody - Ruban draws from the rich traditions of West Coast AOR, yacht rock, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. Over a laidback blend of singalong anthems and cinematic instrumentals, he evokes blue skies, afternoons spent lounging by hotel swimming pools and the alluring darkness that lurks below perfect, pristine surfaces. It's a duality expressed in the dilapidated sunset blues and the salt-corroded soul Ruban explores through tracks like 'Layla' and 'Nadja'.
Track list:
1: The Garden
2: Guilty Pleasures
3: Meshuggah
4: The Widow
5: In the Rear View
6: That Life
7: Layla
8: Shin Ramyun
9: Weekend Run
10: The Beach
11: Nadja
12: Keaukaha
13: I Killed Captain Cook
14: Drag
