Monrovia, California four-piece Unicorns at Heart released Arrhythmia, their fifth album and self-declared ‘bouncy indie rock adventure’ on July 18th – a set of songs that they’ve been tinkering with since 2020. But there is nothing laboured about these seven sometimes ramshackle tracks – capturing as they do a sense of spontaneity and life – the joy and unending possibilities of pressing record in a room of friends.
Different begins things- a tinny, brittle thing with guitars jangling along in erratic shapes; but there’s something vaguely claustrophobic in their cold assault that removes their associations from anything too love-struck. This is a more angular, uncertain beast and no less interesting as a result. Next track, Sung starts with a curiously dinner-jazz sax workout before it meanders into its funk, bass-driven bedroom-pop atmospheres – where vocals drift in a dream-like haze over everything. There are definitely ’80s echoes in the soundscapes structured here. That saxophone builds and swirls until the song reaches the point of near collapse- all the while that louche and languid bass continues its decisive strut.
This does feel delightfully chaotic- the sort of strange, noodling fuzz that comes from joyful live experimentation. Rhythm sections blur and guitars sometimes dip into the detuned- but it adds a glorious impulsivity to proceedings. Pick Up provides a change of pace – a sort of broken ELO stomp where massed vocals gather in buoyant exuberance. The bass is often placed high in the mix, and it is so here, giving everything a tub-thumping throb at its core. Thank You’s flanged guitars, brittle funk rhythms and pop-psyche indebted chorus feel like it wouldn’t be out of place on a 90s Shine compilation (for those who remember such things). A sort of shattered mirror reflection of Britpop’s nostalgia-obsessed melodies. Trippin’ experiments with skittering beats and feels sonically indebted to alt hip-hop textures in its squelching keys- but vocally those soft, sweetly subtle lines also echo Elliott Smith. It’s a curious concoction but it works well nevertheless.
Final song That’s All sums up the rough-around-the-edges recording well- everything on the brink of collapse but with enough fragmentary beauty to draw you into its sunshine-steeped, spaced-out state- that ever-present rumbling bass sounding like it is coming through the floor from a sweat-slicked party below.
Four years in the making, Unicorns at Heart have captured a beautiful energy here. A possible soundtrack to your fading summer – even if it rains.
Written by M. A Welsh (Misophone)
Music | Misophone (bandcamp.com)
