Unknown Mortal Orchestra On World Cafe : World Cafe Hear a rare acoustic session including songs from the band's most recent album, Multi-Love.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra On World Cafe

Unknown Mortal Orchestra On World Cafe

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Unknown Mortal Orchestra performs at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Breanna Keohane/WXPN hide caption

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Breanna Keohane/WXPN

Unknown Mortal Orchestra performs at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

Breanna Keohane/WXPN

Set List

  • "Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)"
  • "Stage Or Screen"
  • "Necessary Evil"
  • "So Good At Being In Trouble"

At the helm of Unknown Mortal Orchestra is Ruban Nielson, a Portland, Ore., resident originally from New Zealand. He says that UMO's most recent album, Multi-Love, was inspired by the true story of a polyamorous relationship into which he entered with his wife and another woman.

Nielson, who normally favors a synth-heavy sound, visited World Cafe's studio to perform a rare acoustic session including songs from Multi-Love. "[The songs] usually start out pretty stripped-back like this," he says. Hear the session — a universal favorite among the World Cafe staff — at the audio link above and watch a video of "Necessary Evil" below.

WXPN YouTube

Episode Playlist