RÓISÍN MURPHY

Murphy occupies a unique position, the gay diva with a library, reclining before floor-to-ceiling shelves in interviews. Shes a nutter but she's our nutter.

I've probably said that about the Unabomber on other forums.

I'm a softer being.

(comma, after momentary sobriety), now.

I want to like the disco mix of "Jealousy" but hearing the sampled guitar from Ahzz's "New York's Moving" without the synths is killing me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud2epRXRFmU

The album is out there now. It's really beautiful.

oooh yes!

I'm still absorbing it but there are definitely a bunch of OMFG moments

Video for "Exploitation"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjSwFsPCeJ4#t=143

that video makes me want a boiled egg

album version is too long though (maybe)

this bangs and is weird

i.e. in character

I can't unsee Dolores O'Riordan.

i really don't know what i think of the album yet but it feels like she's tiptoeing around the concept somewhat. which she should, to be fair, because it's a minefield, but it ends up so careful. some very impressive moments w/r/t structure, arrangements etc but she never goes for it at any point? when "jealousy" comes on afterwards it feels a billion times more alive.

think the restraint contributes to the anxiety and tension kinda running unbrokenly through the whole record

"jealousy" is great obv but a different thing

re: the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLoyu9PcmBc

think the restraint contributes to the anxiety and tension kinda running unbrokenly through the whole record

i think it comes at the expense of any real emotional pull tbh. it's a very tasteful and accomplished concept album but it feels like RM knew that the entire thing had to be handled with care - straight white woman makes album explicitly and entirely about gay black men's experiences, how could it possibly go wrong - and it ended up a touch too sensitive, maybe. idk, i'm still getting to grips with it but i'm not exactly drawn to put it on much, and when i do i find myself appreciating it on a head level way more than on a heart level.

haven't yet seen an interview with her, would have pitched but it's not as if i know a huge amount about the paris is burning era either, lol

I was about to ask: where are you getting the info about the album? I'd love to read it.

the initial press bumpf i presume, not any in-depth feature

yeah the press release she wrote:

This song was written after I watched the documentary film Paris Is Burning, having read an article which referenced it in a discussion about House music's origins in black, gay culture. I was deeply moved by this film. 'I had to run this far from home' - it's about the outcasts who could never fit into mainstream society and how they created a safe place in the drag 'Ball' scene of New York in the ‘80s. 'Will we live on? The children of La Beija' refers to the 'house' of Pepper La Beija, who was one of the most notable figures on the scene, Pepper is also quoted in Malcolm McLaren's song on the same subject 'Deep In Vogue'. The culture was a flamboyant reaction to persecution and disillusionment, the imagination and bravery of these kids is simply awe-inspiring. I envisioned 'Gone Fishing' almost as a song from a Broadway musical version of this story. The making of one's own world, a safer world and the creation of a new, better family in music or youth culture is a theme I touch upon elsewhere on my album Hairless Toys.

straight white woman makes album explicitly and entirely about gay black men's experiences

afaict this only applies to "gone fishing"

i haven't studied the lyrics or anything but she seems to return to those themes pretty consistently throughout

hm well neither have i tbh

also it feels very weird at a time when the ballroom scene seems so healthy for RM to reference it so explicitly as an influence but not go anywhere near it sonically

Murphy's seems to have been adopted by the transgenderqueer (etc., I don't keep up) community for a while.

's (Video is one of several unofficial fan videos for "Simulation" featuring trangender peeps - parts might be unsafe for some workplaces)

i feel like the new record is kind of a sister (or cousin) to last year's mr twin sister album

Hmm, hadn't thought about that, but makes sense on the surface.

I'm definitely a fan of the straightforwardness of Overpowered. This one takes more dedication to love, like Ruby Blue did imo.

been listening to this a lot lately and came across a track-by-track where she basically confirms that only "gone fishing" is about balling, the rest is about her strange interior life. was surprised to find out "exploitation" is literally about sex but in retrospect it's obvious

anyway this is still one of my favorite records of the year, though it makes more sense as a follow up to ruby blue than overpowered. "unputdownable" prob one of my favorite love songs of all time at this point

i waited so long for a new RM album but now there is one i couldn't care less, it's weird.

I played it a lot in late May but haven't returned to it. Too quiet and the melodies are skimpy.

gonna give it my first shot in weeks b/c Brad.

yeah really liking unputdownable, thanks Brad. I think i was put off by the single with the queazy speeding-slowing thing going on. hated that.

Too quiet and the melodies are skimpy.

sympathetic to this but i think i like it bc of how pared down and nervously quiet it is

also i'm a real sucker for the jazzy guitar runs in "exploitation" and "house of glass"

I think i was put off by the single with the queazy speeding-slowing thing going on. hated that.

If you mean Exploitation, that's one of the things I like about that track (my favorite from the album, in either the single version or album version).

ah so there IS a thread. doesn't come up in the search for Roisin. first track is amazing. good to see it got a Mercury nod.
this is her best stuff IMO.

the lack of love would be more baffling if this weren't a very quiet and elusive record

omg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic9f7XRRhx0

INDEED

The full version looks like it's getting released on Friday (digital/12") and is 7+ minutes. WANT

He should do a full remix album. The video is so good too.

Another remix

https://soundcloud.com/miss-roisin-murphy/unputdownable-prosumer-remix/s-9xUmr

so, uh, i guess there might be a new album this year?
https://twitter.com/roisinmurphy/status/702787290171629568

Wow

hell yeah. hairless toys didn't hit me at first but now i think it's amazing... i listened again keeping a couple comments in mind i'd read on the EOY 2015 thread, something about how 'evil eyes' switches gears into a boogie song four mins in. her previous album, which i love, even sounded a bit drab afterward in comparison.

https://soundcloud.com/miss-roisin-murphy/mastermind

new track is nice, hadn't seen the tweets so I wasn't expecting something new already.

This song is like a series of forks in the road, and she took the right one every time.

no need to be depressed, it's fuck you Friday

if that person's movements have effects I need to protect myself from then it is in my interest to click even when I don't want to and you overestimate the extent of free will in this world

that said if it's just standard UK media autopilot bullshit with no new content I don't know why we need to see it xp

have sympathy for Left here given their rights are what's at stake in the UK rn, although I'm not sure how much RM has done to materially affect them other than stir the blood of the transphobes for a few fleeting weeks. these vampires fasten onto any perceived validation, but it feels like she'd rather this all went away rather than joining their coven. temporary damage done. potential for amends in the longer run? for now, fuck her ofc, but fuck this government and journalist class harder

every one of these things has material effects, every celebrity transphobe comment and every UK press article is accompanied by real world violence that gets no coverage

not even getting into the psychological and physiological effects all this stuff which seems pretty material to me

*of all this stuff

oh doubtless the climate of hatred which is maintained at all turns by these ghouls is an ongoing crime against humanity. if you say that RM's words have led to an uptick in transphobic violence you and those you know have experienced then fair enough

OK do I need to have proof that this is linked to that because that's what terfs say all the time - it's a movement based on simultaneously inciting and disavowing (mostly) male violence so nothing sticks to them by design

I said 'fair enough'! it isn't for me to contradict your lived experience, and the ongoing foregrounding of a transphobic discourse is a major reason for the emboldened violence

anyway she's now posting on her Instagram (which I have yet to click unfollow on, more fool me) "Hit Parade is a critical success because it's brilliant" which if ever there was a sign someone needs an intervention

I have to hear

Learning this is not true is one of the great experiences of getting older.

how nice for you

idk, maybe it would help to make your very valid point land a little better if every response wasn't a "fuck you" or snide sarcasm

(i know, i know.. fuck me too, i'll save you some typing on my way out of this thread)

if this is just going to be a tabloid gawk fest repeating hate speech, I totally see left’s point.

“If that person's movements have effects I need to protect myself from then it is in my interest to click even when I don't want to and you overestimate the extent of free will in this world”

^^^^^^^

I'm really at a loss here. Articles like the Torgraph one posted DO have effects, they contribute to the climate of hatred and violence just as Left themselves said here. But if that's not what's meant by effects that trans people need to protect themselves from, what is, within the context of a thread about a musician?

idk I'm not sure who's helped by hearing brendan o'neill say exactly what you expect him to say it's not even really about her is it it's like plug in the name here

post whatever you want though and if it upsets me I'll ignore it or take issue with it depending on my mood / your luck

there is a significant portion of the internet devoted to "look at this bigot being a bigot," it's one of the reasons i left twitter

even if it's in the spirit of ridicule, i was better off not knowing about it

I don't think anyone's helped by that either, aside perhaps from the positive feedback loop of telling each other that yes these people are scum and there's others who feel the same way about that. But as said before I am very sympathetic to not wanting to have to hear about that shit, and regularly avoid various threads about bigots for that reason.

I also take your point that you might need to hear about these people for reasons of personal safety, but if the Torygraph piece doesn't qualify as something that you need to know about by that rationale...I just don't know what Roisin Murphy-related activity would be. But whatever, not my place to do a taxonomy of that.

xposts

What a cast iron wanker

https://x.com/petepaphides/status/1702746847645680127?s=46&t=bJOqpCuQneT7ju08y55VSA

Can BBC Verify or the @bbcpress verify or deny that singer Roisin Murphy has been cancelled by the BBC after criticising puberty blockers?
Five hours of Ms Murphy's songs, interviews and highlights of her concerts were put together for a programme called the 6 Music Artist…

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) September 13, 2023

https://i.ibb.co/ZGmSCQp/IMG-3815.jpg

Thought he'd be too busy defending Brand for this

That was from last week, so it was a day or two before the Brand story took off iirc

Long time fan of Roisin Murphy, of course.....

cool to see the guy who steered a national newspaper into printing a series of stories about how hiv didn't cause aids has learned absolutely fucking nothing about shutting up on matters best left to medical professionals

Equally cool to see the guy who paid a Holocaust denier six figures to translate Goebbels’ diaries weighing in, the schmuck.

https://i.ibb.co/hHmDXtN/Screenshot-2023-09-23-071625.png

probably not unusual for niche artists but the album debuted last week at #5 in the uk charts, this week it's dropped to #73

https://i.imgur.com/rsp1gmt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rsp1gmt.jpg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Case closed.