Rooftops seems like an exercise in overkill -- six tracks, all of them different versions of the same song, which is the first song Second Thought (aka Ross Baker) ever wrote that he truly loved. As a general rule, any time an artist truly loves a song, he also tends to be unwilling to change any aspect of it, regardless of its faults. Thus, to endure six versions of a song often means sitting through the original six times, with minimal cosmetic changes at best ("If you'll listen closely, here I say 'Yeah, baby' rather than 'Oh yeah, baby.'").
Luckily, Baker doesn't suffer from such a narrow viewpoint. In fact, judging by Rooftops, he seems to take great pleasure in twisting his beloved creation beyond all recognition. "Rooftops Part Two", for example, and adds a wide range of burbles, glitches and beats to the ambient original, extending and compressing segments from "Part One" until the song is turned into a skittering, moody piece of glacial chill-out music. In "Part Three", the song is turned into a glo-stick anthem, while "Part Four" shows that Baker has no problems giving the tune an electro-acoustic makeover. The EP's longest bit of experimentation, "Part Five", first re-invents the song IDM-style, then transforms into a much noisier, more industrial-flavored proposition. Finally, "Part Six"'s droning, repetitive beats gradually give way to the soft ambience that started "Part One"; if the CD were put on repeat, it would sound like it was stuck in an endless (and flowing) cycle.
This, perhaps, is Baker's greatest achievement with Rooftops. Each of the six interpretations has a distinctly different sound, but the differences between the remixes aren't so pronounced as to make the album jarring. There's a definite flow here; it makes you wonder what Baker could do with a second song.