Loveskills: Multiplicity

loveskills, multiplicityLoveskills: Multiplicity
When I read that LoveskillsMultiplicity was to be released on February 14th (a Thursday,) I thought that there had to be some amazing love-filled reason. It really isn’t the mushy album I expected. In fact, many of the songs seem to be more about heartbreak than love; the one song I’d characterize as a love song, “We Say Love,” is about trying to rekindle a relationship so even that is steeped in heartbreak. So maybe it’s more for the lonely people who will be buying themselves a Valentine’s gift (like a six-track EP) to deal with their singleness. There’s still a theme of love in the seemingly non-love songs, like towards the end of “Genorate” (that’s not a typo) Richard Spitzer sings “If you want a love song, I’ll be the one to sing for ya.” Of course, most of the rest of the song seems to be about generating cash flow. Between the name and the release date, I was expecting something different (not that I was disappointed with the album, it was enjoyable.) Loveskills is Spitzer, the one-man synth show; he is joined on the album by rapper Alex Falk, drummer Steve Bryant, and one song features rapper Phaze Future. Though she’s not credited, I think there must be a female vocalist featured on “Genorate” as well, otherwise Spitzer is really good at disguising his voice for the repeated “Every every body body” lines.

Multiplicity does have multiple sounds, all united by heavy use of the synthesizer and Spitzer’s soft vocals. “Cover Me,” the opening track, is peppy. I like it for many of the same reasons I like Cut Copy, it’s just got softer vocals and a more ‘80s feel. “Ex-Files” is essentially dub-step. “Genorate” is bouncy in the chorus, though it sounds like a poor man’s Timbaland in the first verse. “We Say Love” is a slow song about rekindling a relationship and how love hurts. “Flash in the Dark” is a flowy song with faraway vocals and dropped beats. “Turbulence” is heavy on synthesizers but is slower.

I wasn’t blown away by “Turbulence,” but I love the peppy “Cover Me” and “Genorate.” The lyrics are good throughout, though it seems a little bit odd when Spitzer is singing about cash flow on “Genorate.” This is a mostly great EP, though I still can’t figure out why it was released on Valentine’s Day instead of on the more traditional Tuesday two days before. This isn’t really baby-making music, with the multiple styles going on it would probably be more distracting than romantic. But hey, you can check it out some other day and those fast-paced songs will be just as catchy.
Rating: 7.0/10
MP3: Loveskills “Genorate”
Buy: iTunes

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