Hasta La Ideas

In June Unknown Mortal Orchestra released their first new single since their 2018 album Sex & Food, and today ushers in “That Life,” a song that’s immediately recognizable as the Auckland-founded, Portland-based outfit. Equal parts fuzzy and shiny, the track comes accompanied by a video directed by Lydia Fine and Tony Blahd. Artist and fabricator Laura Manns (who works frequently with the Jim Henson Company) created the puppets and set. Unknown Mortal Orchestra frontman and mastermind Ruban Nielson says, “I saw this painting by Hieronymus Bosch called ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ and in the painting there was a mixture of crazy stuff going on, representing heaven, earth and hell. When I was writing this song, ‘That Life,’ I was imaging the same kind of ‘Where’s Waldo’ (or ‘Where’s Wally’ as we call it in New Zealand, Australia and the UK) of contrasting scenes and multiple characters all engaged in that same perverse mixture of luxury, reverie, damnation, in the landscape of America. Somewhere on holiday under a vengeful sun.”