Customer Reviews

Multiply

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

How can this album be real? Just when I thought music was over and done with, just when I thought the soul was gone - a dorky British white guy comes along sounding like a cross between Marvin Gaye and Prince. This album is fantastic. Every song is full of heart and soul and grooves and funk. I mean, it actually sounds like the guy enjoys making music. Sure, there are a few tracks that are just okay, but tracks like Multiply, Music Will Not Last, What's The Use and When I Come Back Around make the album a must have. Sure, he's kinda ripping off the old school sound, but I'd rather listen to a guy who rips off motown than a bunch of tools who wish they were living in the 80s - aka every new band out today.

While watching TV one afternoon I heard this commercial for Target, with a memorable hook `A little bit more, a little bit more' I thought, what a catchy little jingle. The next time I heard it I found myself rewinding it repeatedly, oh the joyous wonders of TiVo. Anyhow, I began obsessing over the song as I do so many other things. Until I thought, I MUST HAVE IT! I scoured the Internet and by that, I mean I simply Googled `Target Commercial+A little bit more,' and voila, I had a name, Jamie Lidell. I wasn't quite sure I even had the right person. I clicked the link to the site, fingers crossed, I clicked the link to one of the songs, saying my little mantra to myself `please be him, please be him.' Then it happened...I heard the song not the greatest of sound because it was coming through the muffled sound of my computer speakers (yes I still have a stereo that plays CDs), but it was the song, it was him!! But who was he? Who was this person, Jamie Lidell? Maybe I'm a `Genre Racist' but I expected a more adult version of RB cutie pie Chris Brown. Alternatively, at the very least a hot vanilla honey like Robin Thicke or Justin Timberlake. What did I get? I got a horned rimed glasses wearing awkwardly dressed, escapee contestant from Geeks on Parade! This can't be. But it was. Moreover, the music is fantastic! It is one of the best surprises I've heard all year. I ordered the CD thank goodness Amazon sold it. I have an uncanny ability to hear a couple of versus in a song and know if I'm going to enjoy anything else they sing. The pitch in his voice is great. His lyrical intimations and phrasing is awesome. The music is a bit challenged but if he had better producers, this would be a non-issue. He favors synthesizers a bit. But I attributed this to his German background. Even this small challenge didn't stop this CD from being a small masterpiece. I wonder if his unlikely packaging has gotten in his way from being the next RB/Pop/Rock hybrid such as Robin Thicke or even Adam Levine of Maroon 5. He certainly has the voice and capacity to be as big as these guys. I hope it's just a matter of time. Even if the packaging is wrong. He is great. Now I kinda' like his geek-like charm. I guess it's true, you can't judge anything by it's packaging. It's a great CD, well worth every cent. I put it on a let it roll through to the end. Geeks Rule!

Every day I lament the passing of funk music. Hip-hop killed it dead, leaving only the 5 second samples that MCs choose to loop for their newest tomes about rims and chinchillas. BORING!!

Thank god, then, for this record. Like other reviewers have said, it runs the gamut from old-school Otis Redding soul to dirty, dirty Parliament funk. At times it sounds Beckish, at others it drifts into Terrence Trent D'Arby town, occasionally it even picks up the Phoenix vibe, but for the most part it's up front, serious about taking it to the edge, and totally fun. How dare a modern musician create an album that has an upbeat vibe!

He's got a great voice, the production is dope, and the songs only get better with time. In a word, a record like this gives me hope. Could funk come back to life?

(...)For the past few years, I have been rather vocal in my dissolution with the state of electronic music -- and more so, with the entirety of the commercial music industry. In that time, I have witnessed a throng of cookie-cut artists taking themselves way too seriously, using the same preset sounds, flimsy beats and geometric graphic drivel to market their flop. Now, as a reviewer I know it's not ethical to make such a blanket statement, but I happen to also wear the blessing of "indie label owner" (see Nophi Recordings) and am therefore subject to the curse of "dozens of bad demos every week."

So, where is this rant going? I'll tell you. Jamie Lidell's Multiply is the kind of recording I dream about getting in the mail. Granted, it's on Warp, so I would hardly say this is a demo by some unknown IDM calculator nerd, but it is imbued with the kind of spirited musicality and freewheeling joy that I look for in the artists I release... you know... the wanton musical lust which so many artists lack. (see the Id according to S. Freud)

The first thing I want to point out is that Multiply is not an IDM record. In fact, I would say this record is actually 75% old-school soul, owing much to live instrumentation and the prophetic teachings of Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, but not James Brown. In other words, Multiply is neither revolutionary, nor highly innovative, but a tasty slice of the soul-flavored bundt cake. What makes this disc so palatable is the masterful production and execution of ten great tunes by a rather unlikely candidate from a somewhat likely label. Traditional soul tunes like "Multiply," "What's the use," "What is it this time" and "Game for fools" shine super bright -- lending their love embrace to the more programmed sounds of "When I come back around," "A little bit more" and the trudging and chaotic "The city" (which brings an awkward bit of 60's psychedelia to the disc.)

I must commend Warp for its willingness to adapt, innovate and take chances with artists like Lidell, !!!, and Vincent Gallo. The post Aphex/Sqaurepusher world needs more good songs and less over- calculated, computerized circuit-puke. If you are aspiring to be a producer or electronic musician in general, you should most assuredly add Multiply to your list of must-have albums. You should also consider spending some of that bread you're saving for an overpriced synthesizer on a busted-ass drum kit or bass guitar. It's only a matter of time before the REAL music fights its way out of your machines and back into your hands.

Jamie Lidell is a damningly close version of a cross-bred love child of Sly Stone and Van Morrison, and with one ear finely tuned to P-funk psychedelia and the other to bluesy soul, he's made Multiply one of the best experimental records to date.

Formerly of the electronica duo Super_Collider, Lidell has rolled over to face the other side of his avant-garde ego -- and what's come of this transition is a keen sense of cross-rhythm and texture, of how much can be layered before inducing dementia or removed in taste of minimalism.

The title track is a five-minute throwback to prime Otis Redding backed by an electric organ that runs crazy chromatics throughout. Lidell similarly breathes new life into funk with "Music Will Not Last," a carefully crafted tangle of melodies and bouncy basslines carried only by the words in the title. But beats aside, Lidell's voice is the killer. He can rasp his way into a Ray Charles record and pull a falsetto that would make Prince cry, but his range and intuitive inflection are entirely his own blessings best heard in "Game for Fools." Accompanied only by the counter-melody of an upright bass, Lidell momentarily sets aside his mixing board to make a quiet offering of achingly good soul. It's both a testament to his command of musical aesthetics and the perfect finale to an album determined to redefine the fringes of rhythm & blues.

I love Jamie Lidell, and have now for awhile. This is a soul/funk album, period, and its a damn good one. It really reminded me heavily of a mix between some Parliament/Funkadelic, and Prince's 'New Power Soul' album. It's upbeat and stays that way throughout. Lidell has an amazing voice, I first heard it when he was singing for Super_Collider. My one and only complaint about this album is that im a bigger fan of his 'Muddlin Gear' album which seemed to be much more diverse and original, but not to downplay this album at all cause it is one of the best albums ive heard in a very long time. If you want to be in an exceptional mood all day, listen to this album heavily, you wont be able to get the tunes out of your mind.

The problem with 'white soul singers' is that you can often drift into a land inhabited by the likes of Jamiroquai, Michael MacDonald and Michael Bolton: the music can be appreciated at a certain level (especially Jamiroquai because the band is so tight) but there is that nagging cheesiness that just never goes away. Jamie Lidell, another Brit like Jay Kay and Joss Stone, manages to avoid the cheesy routine and establish himself as one of the finest and most profilic singers I have heard in a very long time; not only that but his album is as rich as any neo-soul album can be. The beauty of this album is that its diversity rides not only in the music but in Lidell's voice - you've got traces of Otis Redding in there, a little bit of falsetto Prince and the grainy pitch of Stevie Wonder all mixed in with a variety of soul and funk treatments. Sure, Lidell wanders slightly into the cheese but then again virtually every neo soul act out there right now is guilty of that once in a while. A song like 'What's The Use', for example, is more a poppy commercial track that could fall in the ranks of later Jamiroquai material. But for the most part this album is pure soul - and I'm talking the kind of soul that can move you and make you move. The party jams are on here with tracks like 'Music Will Not Last', 'NewMe', 'Little Bit More' and 'When I Come Back Around' - the last two mentioned there being definite standout tracks that borrow straight from Prince's recent revival funk on Musicology. The slower jams like 'Game For Fools' are classic slow-dance soul. Jamie is a supreme producer and a superior vocalist who stands out among all the generic R&B voices we have to suffer through in the top 40 charts. This guy is the real deal.

The CD is pretty good. I purchased the CD for one song, "A Little Bit More" which is the song that was being played in Target Commercials on TV. I looked to see if I could buy/download the individual song and I could not find it anywhere.

I like about half of the CD. I really like "A Little Bit More". The rest I don't care for.

This is the best CD I've heard in a long time (with the exception of EWF stuff, old Stevie Wonder stuff and Sly and the Family Stone CD's). This is great stuff--when is Jamie coming to America? I'm in.

This CD is without a doubt the "black pearl" in a sea of lustrous pearls. I enjoy music. It is rare that I find a whole CD that I completely appreciate with variety, style and class. I mostly buy single songs off the net but this was a purchase from AMAZON that is in my book to be herald. I couldn't find this in any stores or even order it from the stores internet sites. Thank You AMAZON!!!

-Shontella TerBurgh