Róisín Murphy-Overpowered

Overpowered

So, definitely uneven, but I'm thinking this could be commercially successful. There's a Timbaland rip-off, which turns out quite gorgeous.

you dont say...is this actually out next week?

FOOTPRINTS. OH MAN...

Could it be that the album should be alot, lot, lot longer? Her free mp3, modern timing, is as good as anything off the new album, and Sweet Nothings is pretty awesomely wholesome.
Dear Miami, however, is simply fantastic. Conveniently topical

omg is roisin murphy a milf?

-- strongohulkington, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:00 (3 months ago) Bookmark Link

^^^OTM

I am so Pavlovian... I nearly posted the exact same thing I had posted two months ago. wow.

Yeah, dear Miami is pretty fucking fantastic.

OTM. Primitive is pretty good too.

While I haven't got the album yet to check the lyrics (please, god, let there be lyrics in the booklet, WHY DO PEOPLE IGNORE THIS SIMPLE NECESSITY) I'm pretty sure it's "your date on my data."

stop the madness!

as the person most likely responsible for any reference to 'you're datin' my daughter', I really do think it is 'your dayta my dahta' (sic).
Though, when her Dublin date comes around, I will surely have my ears pricked.

Pretty dull do over in Pitchfork. Accurate I suppose but still. I hate how many places I've read how she's given up making exciting challenging music. And apparently Ruby Blue was a big hit in Australia. Isn't that how Blondie got started?

Roísín Murphy
Overpowered
[EMI; 2007]
Rating: 8.0
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Roísín Murphy casts a wide net: Avant-pop aesthetes fell for Moloko's screwball trip-hop; Ibizan disco bunnies made "Sing It Back" a pop anthem; nightcrawlers found a postergirl in the booze-hound sleeve of Statues; style-mag fantasists never tire of her covers. Even Sky Sports succumbed, making "The Time Is Now" the unofficial anthem of 21st century soccer.

So why isn't she a huge star? It's a question that has likely been taxing the minds of EMI, who, to their credit, have taken a punt on Murphy after her 2005 solo debut tanked. Recorded with tech-jazz savant Matthew Herbert, Ruby Blue was a brilliantly inventive collection of cut-up pop that confounded her label and failed to find an audience. According to her new bosses, Murphy has got all that self-indulgence out of her system, and is now stepping up to the plate to make a "career record." She has the potential, they claim, to be a kind of beloved entertainer on the level of another investment of theirs, Robbie Williams.

In truth, Murphy is closer in spirit to the late Associates singer Billy Mackenzie, another maverick celtic diva torn between the arthouse, the punk club, and the disco. Mackenzie could never quite knuckle down to the career frequently promised him; one suspects Murphy won't fare any better. Her position is perfectly illustrated in Scott King's artwork for the album and singles, setting Murphy on the streets of east London, having evidently just beamed down from the planet Gaultier-- a pop peacock out of place and time in the mundane Kate Nash-ville of British pop 2007.

The record itself finds Murphy on her best behaviour, however-- wearing its natural wildness and eccentricity lightly, Overpowered is focused solely on the dancefloor. Her collaborators, from Bugz in the Attic and Groove Armada, have constructed a gleaming shrine to the spirit of Bobby O and Giorgio Moroder: The lead single and title track borrows a primordial bassline squelch from the dawn of cosmic disco-- La Bionda's "I Wanna Be Your Lover"-- and the follow-up, "Let Me Know", shamelessly plunders the chorus of Tracy Weber's 1981 classic "Sure Shot".

Murphy is the singer that the mid-00s British nu-pop of Richard X and Xenomania has so dearly missed: A dramatic yet unshowy singer, versatile enough to take in the regal hauteur of "Primitive", the cerebral chill of "Dear Miami", the randy glee of "Footprints", the chutzpah and grace of "You Know Me Better". She's funny, clever, heartbreaking, and strident, the kind of disco singer Dusty Springfield never quite had the abandon to become. At times, however, she's almost too willing to play it straight. "Movie Star" laces itself a little too tighly into Alison Goldfrapp's glam pop corset, while "Cry Baby" is stuffed to the gills with syndrums and cowhorns to the exclusion of much else. And the dubby song for her dad, "Scarlet Ribbons", is sweet but feels a little out of place. But these are quibbles. In a year of low-stakes disappointment for European pop, Overpowered is a triumph.

People with tickets for her upcoming shows: keep an eye on her myspace for possible cancellations, she broke her eye socket during a show in Moscow last weekend.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=28819230&blogID=323413623

(and a video of the accident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAyLwHSpmCI )

What the hell!

Hmm, I was planning on going to see her at the AB

That's on the 19th & 21st, could still be happening, but I'm not sure. (Both shows are sold out already, by the way)

Urgh...

that review is so pompous!!

Róisín is the new Pet Shop Boys!

she's not cancelling that much...most gigs are still on. She's tough. Who needs eyesockets anyway...

yup ! shes got some nice bits, in the same way cathy dennis, lisa stansfield, and sophie el-B have/had nice bits...

...shes definitely got more nice bits than suckier bits and theres not many albums you can say that about

i think im in love with a voice...

i heard one song from this in a shop the other day that had dismal timbaland-style backing vocals. she is milfish though. and this performance from jonathan ross' show is terrific. i find her really interesting to watch as a performer. and not just cos she is milfish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01F47fVY6mE

Love the record, one of the best of the year.

lol i was like roisin murphy is that the one from portishead or morcheeba?

i like that song/video/outfit

anyone who thinks its "your datin' my daughter." needs to check themselves.

good album

Loving it, yes.

Plz complete equation (breaking brain):

Let Me Know = D Train's Keep On + Fonda Rae's Over Like a Fat Rat + ______ (some obvious early '90s house thing, right?)

m people?

It samples Tracey Weber's "Sure Shot".

...'you know me better' is one of my top tunes of the year

the vocal processing on this album is divine...

Awww... How sweet, that eyebrow!

http://stubru.be/node/35791

anyone got the Concert Live album released in her UK gigs?

(some obvious early '90s house thing, right?)

I thought CeCe Peniston, but you'd know better than I would.

Love the record, one of the best of the year.

I've owned it for less than 12 hours and tend to agree.

yeah, this thing is proving to be a real grower for me. 'Tell Everybody' and 'Dear Miami' are undeniable.

"anyone who thinks its "your datin' my daughter." needs to check themselves."

ears, hormones or brane?

dear miami is my fave track by far.

Yeah me too, I've had the "Strictly rolling - VIP" line twirling in my head since this morning...

While "Strictly Rollin' - VIP" is an undeniably great line, it sounds quite incongruous coming from Roisin. However, this same incongruity precludes any possible enjoyment of "Movie Star" where the metaphor just sounds childish.

just got this album (so cheap too - only a fiver at fopp, which makes me feel a bit guilty). like it a lot so far. love her voice anyway but now she has the songs to match (did hear the last album but never got far with it, but this is tempting me to buy it again). sounds very 80s though, kind of like 80s chart music for grownups (but not in a boring jools holland 'mature' way). ive a feeling the production of this is going to date quite soon, but its otherwise great.

scarlet ribbons reminds me of (good) simply red! sade too, maybe.

this whole album seems the work of someone who listened to the charts every week in the late 80s (like i did).

that makes sense, as much of the live show was like LEVEL 42.

Rediscovering this album... it really is incredible isn't it?

Is she big in the UK?

Not really. Think the album just about cracked the top 20, none of the singles did very well as far as i know. Should be massive obv.

really don't understand why róisín's music flops so persistently - electropop girls are apparently "in" right now, or so say a ton of articles, and mediocrities like la roux and little boots are getting loads of hype and genuine success off the back of it, and yet róisín - the only one of them who seems to have genuine vision and talent - languishes. does she even have a deal any more?

live she is this amazingly well oiled entertainment machine, its kindof unbelievable the hysteria that was in the air when I saw her at Sonar last year

she doesn't have the newness or youth which seems to make it difficult for industry powers to work with in this area.

'Movie Star' was one of the few tracks i thought would've worked best as a single (stronger than 'You Know Me Better' imo), maybe even 'Cry Baby' - all the weakest (least sophisticated) tracks on the LP really tho.

goldfrapp somehow managed it and alison's at least as old as roisin, surely?

'let me know' was a terrible choice of lead single...the title track should've been a proper release

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9069/stolelookpz9.jpg

lol

her style is SICK

The title track was the lead single iircxp