Review Summary: For Tomorrow: A Guide to Contemporary British Music, 1988-2013 (Part 94)
Mostly known for their boundary pushing electronic music until that point, in 2005 UK based record label Warp Records music must have decided it needed a change. Instead of putting out freaky-deaky Aphex Twin and Autechre records better at clearing rooms than filling them, Warp started releasing widely accessible records by NYC dance-punkers !!!, instrumental rockers Battles, and post-punk revivalists Maximo Park.
In step with this shift towards accessibility, UK singer/producer Jamie Lidell dropped the musique concrete blippity bloop of debut
Muddlin Gear in favor of the old soul leanings he explored on that record’s closer “Daddy No Lie”. The results are supremely accessible. In fact,
Multiply might be the most accessible record ever released on Warp Records, easy enough for its tracks to appear in huge Target advertising campaigns and Grey’s Anatomy.
Jamie Lidell is a soul singer in the Justin Timberlake mode; technically limited but well studied. Even if he doesn’t come even brush the hem of their garments, he knows his Sam Cookes and his Stevie Wonders and communicates such a plain joy in singing it’s a wonder he hid that voice behind his laptop for so long.
After the lush, snappy opener “You Got Me Up”, Lidell settles into
Multiply’s title track. Like Weezer’s “The Good Life” covered by Otis Redding. An anthem for anyone fed up with their own self-loathing and ready to start breaking out of their own skull for a change, “Multiply” beautifully captures that “end of your rope” feeling to become a new classic and should-be new standard for the soul catalogue. On “When I Come Back Around” he’s leaning into every syllable, building and coaxing the song into a loop-pedal climax so infectious he can’t help but sneak a Michael Jackson “hee!” in there. “A Little Bit More”s knuckle dragging groove slides up against Lidell’s falsetto while “What’s the Use?” is home to the album’s best refrain, Lidell painting himself “a question mark, a walking talking question mark” over comfy sunny day funk.
After “What’s the Use?”,
Mulitply doesn’t experience a drop in quality per se but it does level off some. “Music Will Not Last” is a great groove in search of an equally great hook, while “Newme”, “The City”, and “What is it This Time?” are mostly showcases for Lidell to vamp the titles. None of these are bad songs by any stretch but suffer next to a flawless opening run. Things perk up a bit for closer “Game of Fools”, which closes the album with a neat little ballad.
Multiply is, for the most part, a soul album. It’s nods to Warp Records in the form of various triggered samples or skewed instrumentation avoid gimmickry and never come close to requiring a certain palate to enjoy. There are songs your mama’s mama will enjoy here and a record as bright and shiny as this deserves time in your summer playlist while it’s still warming up.
