2007年 Nov 1日 Thursday, 22:52
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Got hold of Róisín Murphy's new album today, Overpowered. I've read the interviews where she hasn't been best pleased to be compared to Kylie. The general consensus being Overpowered is the album Kylie should have done. Well I think everyone's wrong.
I put it to you, my learned friends, that Róisín Murphy has much more in common with Erasure, particularly their 80s album, Wild!.
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Listening to Overpowered first time through, I was very much reminded of the late 80s, then Movie Star came on and I was overwhelmed with an urge to dig out my Wild! album.
So I did.
Back to back, I swear on oath, they have a lot in common. Tight little beats, happy house, intelligent lyrics with polysyllabic words not in common use, Overpowered is gay in a way that's gone out of fashion.
And that's what makes it so cool.
Róisín Murphy herself has built an image we haven't seen in London since the late 80s with the likes of Leigh Bowery, and in New York in the 80s and 90s with people like Susanne Bartsch. It's not that she dresses up, it's that she deliberately sets out to create a narrative. In all the opinion pieces I've read, no one has picked up on this.
http://www.musees-haute-normandie.fr/IMG/cache-180x252/Leigh_Bowery-moisdelimage-180x252.jpg Leigh Bowery
http://a973.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/m_76bbad5f4e65503bbc10fe51de1e650c.jpg Susanne Bartsch
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Róisín Murphy
I don't think it's correct to compare her with Alison Goldfrapp. Alison Goldfrapp was an arts student, her look is about style, form, the silhouette, line. She doesn't set out to tell a story with her image, rather her aim is to create a visual whole, something beautiful.
http://b1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/00170/17/64/170014671_m.jpg Alison Goldfrapp
I can see why people might compare them musically, but I say the connection is tenuous. Production and sound for dance music is subject to trends and fashions, so what we have today is peculiar to the mid-00s and distinctive for this time. Therefore, the only similarities that I can see, to be fair, are that they are both making music 2007 style.
The exhibits are before you. You must judge for yourselves. For my closing comments, I would like you to consider this: Róisín Murphy is ahead of her time, a fierce girl misunderstood by her peers, harking back to a time that's borderline passé whilst forging new ground for her copycats and clones.
I rest my case.
Babs, My Gang