31/10/2007

Long overdue: Fashion Rocks 2007

The Phoenix Rises

It was confirmed last night that Roisin will resume her European tour this Saturday with a performance in the German city Munich. Make Roisin feel welcome, Bavaria!

30/10/2007

Overpowered enters Top 10 in Belgium

I know, we shouldn't be too obsessed with the charts. It certainly isn't a guarantee for good music. However, I am delighted to tell you that Roisin entered the Belgian album top 10 this week. Overpowered climbed from 19 to 5 on this week's Ultratop charts.

The album rose from 13 to 12 in the official Dutch charts, gaining one place.

Sunday Mail interview

This interview appeared on the Sunday Mail website past Sunday. It clearly is from before Roisin's unfortunate accident in Moscow on Saturday night. (Pictures by Thomas Schweigert - see www.purephotography.de)

You're known for your unique fashion sense - including dressing like a liquorice all sort for your new single's sleeve - can we expect lots of costumes on your tour?

There's a few all right. There's a full band, too. I have two great backing singers and two dancers as well and it should be a bit of a party from start to finish.

Tell us about the infamous outfit you wore for Let Me Know.

It is a little bit Bertie Bassett! It's by Gareth Pugh, an avant garde designer. When you're wearing it you can't do much - you can't smoke unless someone puts a cigarette in your mouth and takes it out, which is probably a good thing.

Where was the song's video shot?

In a cafe in Slough. It becomes my own private disco. It was my idea. I worked with Scott King, who did the concept for the sleeve, the graphics and wrote the treatment for my album Overpowered. We're running with the idea of keeping the performer in a mundane scenario. He saw something in me which was glamorous and expressive but also someone down-to-earth who swears a lot. I'm a very creative artist but I don't see myself as alienated from ordinary people.

Does that grounding come from your Irish background?

Yeah, I'm as common as muck. You have to embrace who you are. Everyone as they get older accepts who they are more.

Did leaving Moloko help you to find out who you are?

It was a very protracted ending. We made an album and toured knowing it would be our last. It took two years for us to extract ourselves from one another and disband. When I made Ruby Blue, my first solo album, it was similar to how I worked in Moloko. I couldn't envisage myself here now feeling like a solo artist. I went forward quietly without addressing the big question of whether I could be a solo artist or not. The really good part is I get to do what I want. I get to say: "I need, I want and I want to work with so-and-so." People don't try to tell me what to do - they wouldn't dare.

You rejected a track by top producer Calvin Harris for your album but did you feel pressured to take it?

It didn't fit with the rest of the record. I decided not to use it and he got upset. I can't hold that against him. I saw him recently, he apologised profusely. Now Sophie Ellis Bextor has recorded that song to release as a single, so it hasn't gone to waste. If it makes a global No.1 obviously I'll be a little p***** off but I knew it didn't suit me. I wouldn't rule out working with Calvin in the future though.

Will you ever go back to Moloko?

I doubt it. I'd be loathe to say it would never happen but it seems so long ago and I've moved on so much.

29/10/2007

Leave a Get Well message for Roisin

Judging by the number of visitors this blog has had today, many of you are very concerned about Roisin after her accident past Saturday.

I want to ask you all to support Roisin in these difficult times by leaving a Get Well message as a comment to this post. You can do so by clicking on the comment link. There is no need to register.

Roisin is said to be very upset about the accident and cancellation of several shows. Let her know we don't hold anything against her!

Thanks for your support!

News: Cancelled shows

As a result of Roisin's recent accident, the following shows have been cancelled:

29 October: Klub Studio, Krakow
30 October: Stodola, Warsaw
01 November: Kesselhaus, Berlin
02 November: Roxy, Prague

All these dates should be rescheduled for some time later in the year.

EMI press release about the accident

Singer Róisín Murphy suffered a nasty injury on stage on Saturday night (27th October) at Moscow’s Ikra Club. Whilst performing the track 'Primitive' from her hugely acclaimed new album 'Overpowered' she hit her head on a chair and severely damaged her eye socket.

She left the stage immediately and was raced straight to a Russian hospital for emergency treatment and was then flown back to the UK early on Sunday morning. Last night she had an operation under general anaesthetic to repair the damage to her eye socket and eyebrow. Fortunately, despite serious concussion and losing a lot of blood, her vision is unimpaired.

Róisín is now recovering well but her European tour dates have been cancelled for at least the next seven days as have all promotional commitments.

It is hoped that Róisín will return to the stage within a week’s time but she is under doctor's orders to rest until fully recovered so the recovery time may need to be extended. However her UK and Irish tour dates starting on 26th November should be unaffected.

The cancelled tour dates will be rescheduled for later in the year.

We all say silly things sometimes

Calvin Harris has spoken to UK newspaper Metro about his reconciliation with Roisin Murphy:

You did some stuff for Roisin Murphy that she didn't use. Did you take it personally? Of course. It only happened once but it was rubbish. I got a bit upset. I saw her the other day and apologised for throwing my toys out of the pram because I said things that weren't very nice. She said: 'That’s all right, we all say silly things sometimes.'

News: Roisin back in the UK

According to sources in Moscow, Roisin Murphy flew back to the UK last night, where she will receive surgery after an on stage accident on Saturday. According to the doctors who treated Roisin in the Russian capital, the accident would not leave any permanent scars.

Roisin is said to be very upset about the accident and the cancellation of her concerts.

This information was given my Grigory Goldenzweig, art director/promoter at Moscow's Ikra nightclub, where the accident took place.

28/10/2007

News: Roisin has accident during Moscow show

Roisin Murphy has had an accident on stage during a performance in Moscow. Various sources report that she broke her superciliary bone (which is above the eye socket) during a performance of her song Primitive and that she was hospitalised.

A video of Roisin hitting her forehead on a chair appeared on YouTube shortly after the accident.

Though her label EMI has not yet confirmed the accident, the Irish consul is supposed to have visited Roisin in hospital.

Let's all wish Roisin a good and speedy recovery!

27/10/2007

Boicozine: "campaign of the season"

The art blog Boicozine has declared the artwork surrounding the Overpowered album release campaign of the season. Here is what they have to say about it:

Scott King has contributed his creative prowess to the latest Roisin Murphy campaign, commissioning Jonathan De Villiers to photograph the cool priestess of pop. Between the three of them, they has effortlessly managed to create a unique mixture of the mundane and the fantastic by dressing Roisin up in some, sort of, outlandish creations by designers such as Gareth Pugh and Victor & Rolf, then photographing her in some typically ordinary London settings. Boicozine declares it to be the campaign of the season. There’s some copy floating around on the internet highway (I'm guessing it's from the press release) where Roisin talks about working with Scott and the ideas behind the images and it goes a little something like this...

"I have worked with him (Scott) once before. First thing he showed me was footage of David Bowie walking down a London high street in the video for 'DJ'. Scott's idea of me is like a kind of street-diva, ready for my close up in off-the-wall couture, even when getting my fill of beans and sausage down my local greasy spoon. Or like the Queen of the Tinkers photographed in resplendent garb, going for maximum impact whilst out shopping and/or shoplifting on the Cricklewood Broadway. For the 'Overpowered' single sleeve I was dressed in a Viktor & Rolf frock that comes with its own lighting rig attached to the body on a full back brace. The rig is very heavy scaffolding, like the stuff they use in music venues; the dress is hooked up on the rig so as to become rather like the sail of a big boat (great for shoplifting). It was very windy on the high street and I couldn't move my feet in the clogs, with the bits of wood nailed on, to make them into high heels! A stray gust of wind almost carried me over a couple of times. Luckily a burly Grip was put on hand, just out of shot, to catch me."

Overpowered sessions - released thus far

Several media reported that Roisin & co wrote and recorded about 30 tracks during the Overpowered sessions in London, Barcelona and Miami.

This article is an update on how many of these tracks have been released so far and which tracks might be released some time in the future.

So far, 19 tracks have been officially released:

11 album tracks - Overpowered, You Know Me Better, Checkin' On Me, Let Me Know, Movie Star, Primitive, Footprints, Dear Miami, Cry Baby, Tell Everybody, and Scarlet Ribbons.

2 album bonus tracks - Body Language and Parallel Lives. These tracks are available on all formats of the album, accept the vinyl release which only features Body Language.

1 iTunes bonus track - Pandora.

4 b-sides - Sweet Nothings, Foolish, Sunshine, and Unlovable. These songs appeared on various formats of the singles Overpowered and Let Me Know.

1 free download - Modern Timing. An outtake from the Overpowered sessions, still available as an official free download here.

The Calvin Harris collaboration Off and On (Roisin Murphy/Cathy Dennis/Calvin Harris) leaked in September 2007. The song was later recorded by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, so it is very unlikely Roisin's version will ever be officially released.

In addition to these 20 tracks, the following songs were supposedly recorded for the album:

Earn It (Roisin Murphy/Michael Ward/Richard Barrett/Dean Honer)
Keep It Loose (Roisin Murphy/Mike Patto/Toni Econmides/Paul Dolby/John Mullarkey)
Don't Let It Go to Your Head Boy (Roisin Murphy/Cathy Dennis/Calvin Harris)

Some sources also list Doesn't Belong To Us (Roisin Murphy, Matthew Herbert). However, this is probably an outtake from the Ruby Blue recording sessions.

As things stand now, it is likely only the "it" songs Earn It and Keep It Loose will ever see the light of day as future b-sides. Or will someone be kind enough to leak Don't Let It Go to Your Head Boy?

I'll keep you posted!

26/10/2007

Roisin on Robbie

Roisin was delighted when record company bosses compared her to Robbie Williams. Initially she was taken aback when label executives likened her to the former Take That boyband member, but admits she was impressed when the analogy was explained.

She admitted to contactmusic.com: "EMI came to see my play live and one of them came backstage and said, 'Don't take this the wrong way, but you remind me of Robbie Williams.' "I didn't get it but he said as a performer, I hold the audience in the palm of my hand. Of course I'm a different artist from Robbie, though."

25/10/2007

Paradiso Amsterdam

For those Dutchies who found the pre-show for Groove Armada rather short past Friday, don't forget that Roisin will be performing in Paradiso, Amsterdam on Thursday the 22th of November. You can buy tickets here.

To see what a wonderful venue Paradiso (a former Protestant church) is for concerts check out this video of Roisin performing Sinking Feeling there in 2005....


European chart news

The Overpowered album entered the European charts this week. Here are the chart positions I managed to track down:

The Netherlands: #14
Belgium: #19
Austria: #35
Switzerland: #32
Finland: #28
France: #155

23/10/2007

Where Ruby Blue meets Overpowered


Look at this picture closely and the meaning of the title will reveal itself.

Warning: Don't call her Kylie

Singer-songwriter Roisin Murphy's independent streak made her leave home at 15 after her parents split up, and helped her achieve pop stardom as part of Moloko. Now she's back as a solo artist - but please don't liken her to Kylie
The blond pop diva being promoted by her record company as the new Kylie Minogue is staring at me in horror. Her ice-blue gaze conveys scorn and am-I-really-hearing-this disbelief. "Am I the new Kylie? What a load of nonsense!"

"You should be looking at all the people I've influenced, rather than comparing me to anyone," Roisin Murphy cries, from which I can only infer that her record label bosses at EMI haven't shared this crucial piece of marketing information with the ex-Moloko singer.
Where the Australian princess fizzes with showgirl affability in Julien Macdonald spangles, Dublin-born Roisin, 34, cuts a more aloof figure, languidly androgynous in sculpted Viktor & Rolf clothes that accentuate her lean body and sleek bob. Kylie sings songs about chocolate. Roisin sings songs about oxytocin, the neurotransmitter said to be responsible for love.

Nevertheless, I can see why industry insiders might be making comparisons, because when it comes to crowd-pleasing club tunes and anthemic disco, Roisin's new album proves that she's anyone's match, even the sainted Kylie.

As one of the Moloko duo, she notched up a modern classic with "Sing it Back" in 1999. Her latest electronic offering, Overpowered, is equally catchy and commercial. It's a far cry from her first solo album, Ruby Blue, released in 2005 and widely described as "bizarre". It was promoted using a picture of Roisin dressed in armour milking a cow in the Alps, and by her own admission she "would go into the studio and grunt and then we'd do a great song around it." Together with her theatrical dress sense – she once wore a dress fitted with a lighting rig – it has earned her a reputation for wilful eccentricity.

"I'm eccentric maybe, but not wilful, and I wish people would stop calling me an edgy, avant-garde, left-field icon as if that were a bad thing," Roisin says.

But for all her initial froideur, when Roisin warms up she is entertainingly self-deprecating and darkly witty.

"My video director once described me as being 'a very loud and funny woman'. Not very intelligent and brilliant. It made me sound like Su Pollard."

But, in fairness, pinning her down is tricky. A self-confessed muse ("I always bring out creativity in the men around me"), she's also a workaholic: "I'm the one turning up at the edit at 10pm and staying on until 1am."

She's an "optimistic cynic," and a homebody who, paradoxically, loves touring. When performing, one moment she's cultivating the untouchable aura of a Hitchcock blonde, the next she's stage-diving into the audience in a Vivienne Westwood ball gown.

"Am I contradictory? No," she says. Then, contradicting herself, "Yes. Maybe I compartmentalise myself."

"Women are used to doing that. Throughout the day we take on different personae and we dress accordingly: for work, for being a mother, if we're feeling sexy or just want to have fun."

She lives with her boyfriend, artist Simon Henwood in an Edwardian semi in Cricklewood, North London, and takes clothes as seriously as music. Professionally she wears modernist constructions from Viktor & Rolf and the innovative British designer Gareth Pugh, known for his playfulness with silver foil, latex and giant cone hats.

In civvies, she favours vintage pieces, Luella Bartley and Preen. "I don't wear clothes thoughtlessly – I like them to have meaning."

I suspect Roisin, who has a history of philosophy from Aristotle to Alan Turing on her iPod, seldom does anything thoughtlessly. She's fascinated by science, and says it feeds her songwriting imagination.

"You have to keep your mind open to ideas."

"It's like taking a pile of vegetables and fruit: when you put them in the juicer all you get is a dribble out of the other end, but it's rich and potent."

Roisin comes from a family of self-starters. Her mother was an antiques dealer, her father supplied furniture to the bar trade, her elder brother runs a kitchen-fitting company.

"My family were all self-employed, so we weren't working class or middle class, we were wheeler-dealer class. It means I have to be my own boss."

"From an early age I loved fashion and would wear my mothers 60s clothes. My primary teacher would trail me off to the staff room to show them what I was wearing."

Roisin's otherness and hunger to be noticed were celebrated within her family.

"Every time I walked into the house there would be an auntie or uncle telling me how beautiful I was, or how clever or talented and special. It was very nurturing and gave me a great sense of confidence."

Then, when she was 12, her parents moved to Manchester. It was there that she honed her chameleon-like ability to adapt. Picked on for her Irish accent, she adopted Mancunian at school and reverted to her native brogue at home. ("I'd have had my ears boxed otherwise.") But home was not always an easy place to be.

"My parents had a passionate, tempestuous relationship, so full of drama it was like watching a film."

"That's probably made me the artist I am, but it's also coloured my relationships; as soon as I've got the stability I'm looking for the row."

Her parents split up when she was 15, and both returned to Ireland. She stayed in Manchester with friends, got a council flat and coped.

"I didn't have a second's hesitation. Maybe at a subconscious level I knew that my mother was recovering from the end of a 21-year marriage and wasn't in a place where she could be of any use to me nor I to her."

She buckled down to her A-levels – "easy, creative ones like art and theatre studies because I'm dyslexic" – and spent her evenings having dinner at someone's mum's.

"I was being looked after, just not by my parents. I made close friends and learned to be self-reliant."

She passed her exams and moved to Sheffield to be with her architect boyfriend, who took his muse on a tour of Europe. When the relationship ended, she was on the cusp of moving back to Ireland when she met musician and producer Mark Brydon, introducing herself with the line, 'Do you like my tight sweater?'

The pair became romantically then professionally involved (Roisin playing the muse again), and Moloko was born, their first album fittingly entitled Do You Like My Tight Sweater? When, after 11 years, the partnership ended, Roisin began her solo career.

"I've changed since Moloko. I'm not afraid to make demands of people, to work hard and expect the best."

"I wanted to make a disco album because I take dancing seriously. Night culture is a form of escapism."

She credits her relationship with Simon Henwood (all stability and no rows) for giving her the security to flourish creatively. He's painted her more than 15 times.

"I'm not sure why I'm treated as a muse.

"Maybe it's because I'll give every bit of me to a person when I really love them."

Pause.

"Or maybe it's because I'm quite fit and they want to sleep with me."

Cue more laughter. Then she dresses up for the photographer in vertiginous heels and tourniquet-tight trousers.

So not the new Kylie, just the new Roisin – and it doesn't get much better than that.

From the Daily Mail website.

News update

UK Chart news
The Overpowered album entered the UK charts at number 20 this week. Let Me Know drops from 28 to 44 on the official singles chart.

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Overpowered lyrics
The lyrics to all album tracks are now online. Click here to check them out.

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Arjan Writes
All five parts of Arjan Writes' interview with Roisin are now available. Click here to listen.

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Roisin at Swarovski Fashion Rocks 2007
Roisin performed at this year's Swarovski Fashion Rocks 2007, which took place in London on Thursday.

This is what fashion site Catwalk Queen has to say about Roisin:

The coolest celeb & designer team of the night had to be Roisin Murphy and the absolutely beautiful Frida Gianinni for Gucci. Roisin went for a retro maxi dress with a jacket and dirty gold accessories, while Frida showed off legs that's make La Moss jealous in a one-shoulder mini.

The pictures below were taken before & after the show. Doesn't she look fabulous?




18/10/2007

Let the tour begin!

Tomorrow Roisin's European tour commences with a show in Amsterdam's Heineken Music Hall, where she will perform together with Groove Armada. She will then move on to Denmark, Finland, Poland and various other European countries.

To all of you who are going to see Roisin live before the end of the year: I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

This picture shows the songs Roisin sang at her London showcase.

Roisin on Jools

Roisin will perform on Later with Jools Holland on Friday the 9th of November. She last appeared on the show in 2003, as part of Moloko.

17/10/2007

Roisin speaks!


Watch this great interview with Roisin, courtesy of EMI. Note how the film visually corresponds to the album artwork. We like!

It's going well!

Go to sevendigital.ie to see that Roisin's album is in the higher regions of the current album download chart.

Let's hope this is an indication that Roisin's new solo effort will be a chart success in her home country. If you haven't yet bought the album, go do it now!

Overpowered - TV ad

16/10/2007

Digg.be interview & review

For those of you who can read Dutch, there is a very interesting interview with Roisin on the Belgian music site digg.be.

When the interviewer asks Roisin if she thinks people will compare her to Kylie Minogue she says definitely not. When the interview asks why this might be so, Roisin replies: "cause I'm a bitch! ... I'm a superbitch! ... On stage, I'm a superbitch!". Did Roisin drink from the Fountain of Know Thyself? Who can tell!

Click here to read the interview. There is a raving album review here.

Arjan Writes again

Click here to go to the wonderful music blog Arjan Writes to listen to Part 1 of 5 of Arjan's interview with Roisin Murphy. The complete interview will soon be available as an MP3 podcast. Keep checking his page.

Electro's high priestess is bringing it back solo


“It’s all for the image darling,” purrs Roisin Murphy about her outlandish outfits.”I don’t dress for myself, I don’t dress for fashion, or the audience. I dress for the image.

“Somebody great like Marlene Dietrich said that. I embrace everything that could be construed as creative within my field.” You can always trust Ms Murphy to give a good quote.

Let’s get introductions out of the way. Roisin, pronounced roe-sheen (she wants you to get it right) was in Moloko, who had big hits with The Time Is Now and Sing It Back.

This week she releases her second solo album, the career-defining and virtually flawless dark disco record Overpowered, and also appears at Swarovski Fashion Rocks, the annual event that unites designers with musicians and combines performance with catwalk. “I’m doing Gucci,” says Murphy casually. “I’ve got a few choices but I’ve not tried them on yet.”

Mimicking her album artwork, that sees the blue-eyed blonde coutured up to the elbows in a builders caff, Murphy daintily shovels down Welsh rarebit as we talk, decked out in an amazing rouched bat-wing leather jacket. She looks outlandish and ordinary at once. There have been media murmurs that Overpowered is the album Kylie should be making, and although it’s meant as a compliment, Murphy doesn’t take it that way. “It pisses me off. I don’t care if it’s in a good way – it’s wrong. Obviously I can’t tell you what to write, but it trivialises my life. I’m sure she’ll make a great record, but it’s like the difference between a newsagent and a shoe shop on the same street – they’re different models for business.” That’s me told.

Dare I bring up Calvin Harris? The two worked together on a track for this album (he also worked with Kylie), but she didn’t think the track was suitable for her, and Harris spouted unkind words about Murphy as a result.

I proceed with caution, but the Irish singer bears no ill will towards the lanky Scot: “No, Calvin’s lovely. I saw him the other day and he apologised, and said he understood now he’d heard my record.” Then she lets me into a little secret. “Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s doing the track now. She’s already recorded it and she loves it. It will probably be a big hit and everyone will tell me I was mad for not doing it – such is life.”

But what should she care. Her album is packed with future classics like electro-pop juggernaut, Movie Star, cowbell ker-ker-razy Cry Baby, and atmospheric stunner Primitive. As it stands, her interpretation of disco is easily as good as Madonna’s Confessions on a Dancefloor, without having to sample Abba.

“It’s a brilliant record,” she says with 100 per cent conviction. “But I’m very proud of every record I’ve made.” I ask Roisin if she thinks the album would stand a better chance of commercial success if it were released under the well-established Moloko brand.

She bats away my concern like a gnat on her toast. “No, I think we’re starting again in many respects. You don’t have to put “from Moloko” after my name. 16 year-olds won’t have a clue what you were talking about.”

From yesterday's The London Paper

15/10/2007

Competition updates

Last week's Let Me Know competition is now closed. The correct answer was (c) Charlie. The lucky winner of the limited edition UK picture disc is Ana from Belgrade, Serbia. Congratulations!

If you didn't win don't be too disappointed because there's more exciting competition news. Thanks to Roisin's label EMI, this blog will soon run a competition in which you'll have a chance of winning two tickets for one of Roisin's show in Koko, London. Keep watching this space!

Roisin's Ray of Light

Like Metro, UK newspaper The Observer gives Roisin's new album no less than five out of five stars:

Roisin Murphy, Overpowered
5 stars

No one makes music quite like the Roisin Murphy. It's time, thinks Garry Mulholland, that she was granted more acclaim

Irish chanteuse Roisin Murphy is a singular presence in 21st-century pop. Unlike your stereotypical, ultra-focused, career-obsessed modern young pop wannabe, Ms Murphy didn't particularly wanna be at all. The Wicklow-born and Manchester-raised singer hadn't sung a note when, at the age of 18, she approached a bloke she liked the look of at a Sheffield club and asked him, 'Do you like my tight sweater?' A pretty great chat-up line, all told; good enough to get her the guy (dance producer Mark Brydon), make her the lead singer of a twisted dance-pop duo called Moloko, and serve as the title of the pair's 1995 debut album. Roisin Murphy fell in love and fell into pop purely by chance. The more you fall into the lush dance-pop swirlings of this, Murphy's second solo album, the more you feel that it was pop's lucky day.

Overpowered, a sumptuous 11-track, all-killer-no-filler, electro-disco gem sees Murphy striving to get rid of her Big Hit Albatross. 'Sing it Back', you may recall, was the ubiquitous mainstream club anthem of 1999, which would have been all roses and kittens for Murphy and Brydon if it hadn't been a remix that didn't really sound like the rest of Moloko's more trippy, art-funk oeuvre.

But Roisin was always far closer in spirit to Bjork than Kylie. After a personal and professional split with Brydon, she chose to work with visionary art-jazz producer Matthew Herbert for her first solo album, 2005's Ruby Blue, on the kind of ambitious avant-pop hybrid that gets Bjork rapturous acclaim, but only got Murphy... well, a deal with EMI, at least, who thankfully recognised a genuine maverick when they heard one.

Inspired by the Eighties proto-house of D Train, Mantronix and Gwen Guthrie, but often sounding a dead-ringer for Yazoo, early Eurythmics and rave-era dance-popsters Electribe 101, Overpowered's bubbling, sensual, and soulful glitterball gems effortlessly tap into the perennial glory of feeling lost and lonely at the disco at the end of the world. If it feels like Murphy is singing about, and to, Mark Brydon on the likes of 'You Know Me Better' and 'Movie Star', then the deep beats, lush synths and subtle horns and strings provided by male producers/co-writers including Jimmy Douglass, Groove Armada's Andy Cato and Richard X work overtime to establish Murphy as sole captain of her own swish and swoony destiny.

As closing ballad 'Scarlet Ribbons' wends its gently reggae-fied way to the sweetest of endings, you realise that you've just been dreamily immersed in the best grown-up dance-pop album since Madonna's Ray of Light. Yep - that good. I hope Ireland doesn't get too offended if Britain comes to its senses and recognises Roisin Murphy as a National Treasure.

Download: 'Overpowered'; 'Tell Everybody'; 'Scarlet Ribbons'; 'Let Me Know'

Amazon interview

Go to the Amazon website to watch a short interview with Roisin about her new album. The interview took place in the album cover breakfast café.