Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “That’s Life”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the project of New Zealand native Ruban Nielson, returned earlier this summer with the new song “Weekend Run,” their first official single in three years. Today, they’re back with another new one, “That Life,” a classic UMO psych-soul tune with a music video from Lydia Fine and Tony Blahd featuring a puppet created by The Muppets/Sesame Street puppeteer Laura Manns.
“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,” Nielson explains. “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.”
Listen to “That Life” and watch the video below.