UNIVERSAL´s Synopsis + track by track notes:

Album Biography :

(Robby) Valentine’s 8th studio album ‘Falling Down In Misanthropolis’ gives an honest inside look into the personal turmoil of the mind of it’s creator during the time of recording and writing of it.
‘Misanthropolis’, the name of Valentine’s studio and residence , a combination of the words misanthrope and Metropolis.
The story of Michael Douglas´ starring movie ‘Falling Down’ was taken as a metaphor for the lyrical content of this album and included in the album title.
Every instrument on this CD is played by RV, as well is the production.
Apart from two cover versions (Abba’s SOS and Queen’s Flick Of The Wrist) all songs are originally written by RV.
This album is the darkest in Robby’s now 8th album counting oeuvre .
Heavier, more brutal sound and lyric wise. Emotional . Down to earth., but still with his familiar angelic choirs and his characteristic clear sounding voice.
Clever production and arrangements all done in “Misanthropolis” his personal recording studio.
This time not so many piano’s appear. Mainly it became a guitar oriented album that suited the attitude of the powerful compositions best.
Valentine sounds heavier than ever.

Liner Notes :

Falling Down

The album opener kicks off with a vocal harmony sung in the F diminished chord, shortly noted as Fdim : The initials of the album title.
Followed by a killer metal guitar riff that swirls into a tempo-changed two note frustrated piano sequence behind the annoying sound of the voice from the answering machine, that’s been heard for the umpteenth time.
Desperation all over the place. ‘No last goodbye, no why- murdered inside ‘ , ‘Can’t breath, getting too deep’
‘All fucked up and no place to go’. The tone is set. ‘No escape I’m falling down…..’ in Misanthropolis.

Just A Dream (Someone Sold The World)

Musically the most easy going song of this CD. A bit Sgt. Pepper Beatle-minded. Lovely harmonies and chord progressing.
An authentic composition brought into the new era.
Still lost in the maze of a heartbreak wanting to escape that miserable state of mind . Everything has changed just by following a dream that turned out wrong.
Burnt bridges, no return to what’s used to be, lost in an alternate world with no way out .

4th Rate Razorback

Marilyn Manson meets The Beach Boys !
Fist raising , aggressive, metal guitar oriented track that bangs its way through the verses and finds itself falling into the sweet melody and chords of the chorus.
Rather contradicting in style but works marvellously well. One of the highlights of the album.

Save Myself

Adventurous gothic pop-metal song. Bombastic and dramatic, but catchy. Also a highlight of the album.
Featuring vocalist Alyss Andico in the final chorus and the theme vocal lines . Hit potential written all over it.

Rock Me Like A Hurricane

The stranger in the midst.
80’s electro-pop sounding track with catchy sing along pop/rock chorus. Sung with low -tongue in cheek- lead vocals customary for these type of songs .
A fun track that escapes the dark atmosphere of the majority of the songs on this album.
Synthesized-basses, pounding bass drum, danceable rhythm, the patently obvious gay-pastiche puts a smile on your face .

April Fool

Industrial and melodic with some characteristic ‘Valentine ’vocal - harmonies, makes it a unique track altogether.
Built upon a sample-loop this is unlike the way RV usually gets to work. Therefore the quickest Valentine song ever written and recorded.

Here

‘In this place of make-believe I slowly die’ ….
On the verge of giving up hope, but still trying to hold on to the dream once shared with the one for whom most of these songs are written about.
Mid-tempo pop/rock song with a slice of metal , and a mysteriously sounding verse that’s coming right out of no-mans land.

The Bitter Escape

An inconspicuous mix of different styles in one song. Indian music inspired rock in the bridges, nu metal verses, 90’s Britpop melody style choruses .
‘Run away into the night, couldn’t make the extra mile’ , ‘Gone astray again I lose control…’
A bad case of falling down in Misanthropolis .

S.O.S.

Since The Beatles cover “Here, There And Everywhere” on Robby Valentine’s debut album, now a 2nd cover version .
Lyrically ABBA’s S.O.S. fits well with the other tracks on this album.
The first part Robby stays close to the original then bursts out into an over the top rocky AOR-like chorus . Instead of going back to the soft beauty of the original and first verse, the 2nd one is more like a gothic metal version of it . The 1975 written song ends as its original then follows up with another cover version from one year before.

Flick Of The Wrist

Freddie Mercury composed and written Queen song from their ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ album.
Queen vs Abba in the 70’s was like The Beatles vs The Stones in the 60’s. You couldn’t support both (in the open).
Of course even the most fanatical Queen fan couldn’t deny the great talent of geniuses Bennie and Björn from ABBA later in life.
But still, Robby, as being one of those fanatics during elementary school days just had to settle the score to at least record one Queen song as a counterpart to his betrayal by recording ‘S.O.S.’
Often Robby’s accused for the way his love for Queen sometimes could be heard through some of his music.
Though trying to stay as close to the original as he possibly could, unintentionally the ‘Valentine’ sound shines through and once and for all proves that even if he wants to, RV could never be the copycat that some superficial listeners accused him to be.
And besides that, it is a great accomplishment to emulate John Deacon’s bass parts, Brian May’s guitar playing and all these vocal harmonies all by himself.
The song ends with the intro of another Queen song : ‘Ogre Battle’ and from there it gets into the next Valentine written composition...

Show Your Face

Pushy, annoying and a little modern.
Being a little pissed off by the fact songwriter Linda Perry obviously listened a little too well to the verses of his song “What In The World I’m Waiting For” from the 2000 released Valentine album ‘Believing Is Seeing’ for Gwen Stefanie’s solo debut single : “What You Waiting For” , RV wrote this track to show his dissatisfaction .
But there’s more to the song of course. It’s about knowing who you are and what you stand for.
Nice part is when the song gets into a more aggressive stage at 1:48 min. The threatening builds up, then shouts….. “I don’t bow for a humanoid !!!!”
Lots of frustrations are coming out . Frustrations about society and about how pure souls are being deformed, or let themselves being deformed .
Frustrations about how so many deny their own unpopular goals and being.
HEY ! SHOW YOUR FACE !

Searching Forever

1990 written piano ballad Searching Forever is about the end of a love .
Heartbroken and desolated, trying to face the thought that real love might not exist.
A beautiful but sad conclusion of the mainly dark atmosphere on the album.

Bonus tracks :

Make Way For The Messenger (remix)

Remix of the 2000 released song on the “Believing Is Seeing“ album. As a bonus-track especially for the Japanese fans.

The Mistake

Also especially for the Japanese release this latest Valentine recording;
A heartbreaking ballad.
Robby: “This is actually the best way to end the cycle of the two albums : ‘The Most Beautiful Pain’ and ‘FDIM’.
The song is about the event where it started to go downhill in my personal life . The lyrics are clear enough , they’re literal “