Album Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food

Who saw this coming? Having paved their way to commercial success, Sex & Food finds Unknown Mortal Orchestra plunging neck deep back into the fuzzy, discordant clatter of their first album.

But with mass acceptance, awards in his native New Zealand and daytime radio play, it's easy to forget Ruban Nielson's earlier zig-zag career path, having birthed Unknown Mortal Orchestra after his previous band, chainsaw-wielding art rockers The Mint Chicks, imploded while struggling for recognition in the US. Here, Major League Chemicals grumbles into being amid a hazy, cannabinoid biohazard of toxic guitar fuzz. The single - yes, really the single - American Guilt does much the same, alongside a mess of cymbals and snares.

Elsewhere, Ministry Of Alienation shambles along as possibly the gloomiest thing Nielson has ever written. Delicately understated, it's nonetheless hobbled with an unshakable sense of quiet desperation; a vibe that reoccurs on the morose The Internet Of Love (That Way) and the sparse, twilight folk of This Doomsday. It may not be what the public at large asked for, but Sex & Food is yet another curious chapter in Nielson's ever-meandering career path.