Review: Roisin Murphy “Overpowered”

October 23, 2007 by Svetlana  Send to a Friend

First things first: Roisin Murphy should, by all means, be a huge, huge, huge star.
She isn’t. While many significantly less worthy people are.
While this is bullshit, you can make it all a little better if you go and pick up her latest album “Overpowered” (released in the UK on October 15th, without a US release date, but available on Itunes)
And this is why:

all sorts of stars

If there is one thing Britain does well then that is dance pop star vixens. Sofie Ellis-Baxtor, Rachel Stevens, Sugababes and Sarah Cracknell of St. Etienne all come to mind. I guess you could add Kylie to the list, though the woman is Australian.
Anyways, all these ladies, while beautiful and catchy and loved have nothing on Miss Murphy.
A little back story:
Ever since she approached Mark Brydon in 1994 and said: “”Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body.” and they formed Moloko, Roisin has been the Hitchcockian stone cold fox of the European dance scene. And an Ibiza goddess with “Sing it Back”. (still one of my favorite videos ever)

The band eventually parted ways (get the “Moloko Catalogue” for homework purposes) and Roisin released her first solo album “Ruby Blue” in 2005 and I probably listened to it so many times, I would have grown sick of a lesser record. It was clever, consistently danceable and spectacularly produced. Behold this “So into you” video:

Now, two years later “Overpowered” comes and if it has one problem than this is it:
Roisin Murphy makes grown up dance music. She is, after all, a woman and not some teeny bopper, thank you very much.
And grown ups don’t buy dance music as much as t(w)eens do.
And this may be too much for some kids:
while perfectly polished, and shiny in all the right discoball waves, it is by no means cute.
Her voice is, while occasionally very sultry, sharp as a tack, more resonant of torchy singers like Peggy Lee (Fever!) and Dusty Springfield than the cotton candy vocals that fill today’s pop charts.
Her observations, while swathed in shimmery beats are occasionally devastating.
When she sings “when I think I’m over you, I’m overpowered” you can sense she knows how this really feels to have no choice but to give in.
In “You know me better” she almost channels a Tina Turner for 2007 (”we’ve waited long enough baby, you know me only too well….When it comes to you, I really can’t win”). And it is all a non-stop-dance-and-mind-fuck after that. Ranging from the “Dear Miami” flick off to a Goldfrapp (new album coming soon, kids!) moment in “Movie Star”.
She has everyone from the Groove Armada to Bugz in the Attic keeping things as tight and perfectly sampled.
(and the album art which can be viewed on her website is one of the most sophisticated art meets music meets fashion collaborations I’ve seen recently)
It is as close to a perfect dance record you won’t get sick of anytime soon (especially since, sadly, most of these songs will NEVER be overplayed on the radio) as you can get this year.
Get it.
And pray to Gods of electro-dance that she and her bright shiny peacock of a live show somehow find their way to the US and DC soon.

In the meantime, watch this videos for “Overpowered” and “Let me Know” (when you’re lonely baby) and learn:

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and if you want more:
befirend:http://www.myspace.com/roisinmurphy
remixed: http://www.myspace.com/roisinremixed
stream the album: http://emichrysalis.co.uk/roisin/player/generic/

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