Moloko - Statues

MINE

I've already shared my love for the voice of Moloko - Roisin Murphy - and this album's their final one before the duo split and Ms Murphy embarked on a solo career.  Although recorded as recently as 2002, a re-listen has me a tad dissatisfied.

Sure, it features Roisin's dulcet tones, and her vocal range is awe-inspiring, but the samples and drum sounds seem a little dated for my liking.  It's a good dinner-party album, but doesn't feature any of the strong sounds that made Sing It Back and The Time Is Now such floor-fillers.

VERDICT:TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

I love the story of how Roisin Murphy introduced herself to Mark Brydon, the erstwhile musician and co-founder of Moloko, at a party in Sheffield - "Do you like my tight sweater?  See how it fits my body."  No woman, not even in my wild and vivid imagination, has ever said anything like that to me, particularly at a party.  The 'tight sweater' line became the title of their first album and the two started dating, naturally.

Statues is at the other end of their career.  Unfortunately, there's no great story to end it, just the break up of the couple followed by the band.  It's hard not to like Roisin's sexy voice but as far as this album goes, it just sounds dated and kinda cheesy.  

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information:

In our collection, we also have All Back To The Mine

Roisin Murphy - Overpowered

YOURZ

Roisin Murphy is responsible for the vocals for some of the smartest dance music I'd ever heard when she was part of the duo, Moloko. I'm not a big dance music fan but really liked what they did.

I was hoping Roisin would continue in this vein and, for the most part, she has done. Elevating dance above the standard 'doof-doof' to something more is always going to be a hard ask but in Overpowered, she seems to have done it.

But this is what I would definitely term 'girl' music. It's great to play loud and dance about to, if so inclined, but it doesn't feed my inner-caveman and he's always hungry. Thankfully, this is also the sort of music that inspires Mine while she is cooking. The outer caveman is very thankful for this, let me tell ya.

Gripe time: what is it with tiny credit lists. I know CD sleeves are small and sometimes, an artist has a lot of people to give credit to. For trainspotters like me, however, using 2 point font means, short of buying a magnifying glass, I have no chance of reading them. Ms Murphy is most certainly not alone in doing this.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

MINE

I was a fan from her Moloko days, so buying this album wasn't a stretch for me. It's one of my kitchen CDs - I like to play it when I'm on a cooking binge, as its danceability helps bounce me around through the gruelling bits, plus it's not so deep it distracts me. Kitchen music needs to be either danceable or singable - light or super-familiar. There's a CD shelf in the kitchen which usually holds a few compilations (the variety keeps me hopping) plus some big-ass songstresses like Ella Fitzgerald and Dusty Springfield.

While I was doing a bit of research for this post, I was surprised to see her dissing Lady GaGa for copying her looks. But then Roisin's always had her own wild fashion style, and if GaGa did copy it I'd think it'd be more of an homage rather than a straight lift. I guess I just don't like to see female artists catting it up. I prefer Overpowered to The Fame Monster, anyway.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (But careful if you're dancing while holding sharp knives!)

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/roisinmurphy