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Nov 13, 2013 Web Exclusive By Dan Lucas

The appeal of Unknown Mortal Orchestra—essentially the project of singer/songwriter Ruban Nielson—is largely his expertise as a chemist; on the LP II earlier this year he showed off his ability to use a range of sounds, styles, and influences as elements to cook up a very decent album. For the opening songs on this new EP, though, he takes three neat psychedelic pop tracks from II, plus one from Dirty Projectors (“Swing Lo Magellan”) and Beck’s superb “Puttin’ It Down,” and strips them back to just his voice and an acoustic guitar.

The result is Schrödinger’s cat: simultaneously interesting and dull until you listen to it. Then it’s just a bit dull.

Sure, it’s kind of cool to hear Nielson so effortlessly convert all of these songs into cutesy, pretty folk numbers. The downside is that it doesn’t take long before the listener begins to think that they’ve accidentally stumbled across an Ellie Goulding record. Listening to “Puttin’ It Down” is a stark reminder of how far from the peak of alt-country this band—among the best psych pop artists out there—really is with this EP. (www.unknownmortalorchestra.com)

Author rating: 4.5/10