A kung fu fighter in a disco

I suppose I'd better listen to her record then.

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You really should!

Gig was proper rave-up at times, omg extended thundering version of 'Overpowered'. Sorry people behind me and Anna-Marie but you weren't dancing so you deserved it really.

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martinv.livejournal.com

Not sure about the Roisin album. Still think her only real 'pop peak' was 'The Time Is Now' and that was with Moloko. That still sounds fresher than most of Overpowered to me...

Bet she's fun live though.

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On my computer I divide albums up so that the best tracks are in one folder under the artist name (so it includes their previous good album tracks etc.) and the ones I don't rate as much go into an archive folder that I will rarely play stuff from.

Anyway, I think I put all of 'Overpowered' in the premier folder as it's all sounding good enough although there's nothing on it I would class as truly outstanding (similar to 'Tangled Up') and nothing quite as good as the highlights on the last album. but the singles are good, 'Footprints' and 'Scarlet Ribbons' are lovely. i think i like the banging Seamus Hadji mix of 'Overpowered' more than the original now tho - it's in my 07 mix...not sure i've heard the Kris Menace mix but how much different can it be from the Haji one??

Edited Date: 2007-11-29 12:13 pm (UTC)

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Overpowered - I know this one and it's good - science metaphor works intellectually but not emotionally: I don't FEEL her desire at all, this is because she has a very detached voice, bit like Sophie E-B

You Know Me Better - cold, vaporous, tedious.

Checkin On Me - better beat for sure, I remember now from Moloko that I really hate her mid-atlantic accent - she sounds like someone deciding to perform being a disco vocalist, rather than a disco vocalist.

Let Me Know - boring ersatz disco, gruesome cod-funkiness on the chorus "lick" betrays a career spent hanging out with ex-member of Chakk. Very tasteful, as ever.

JESUS CHRIST 9 TRACKS TO GO?? Do something under 4 minutes for once!

Movie Star - like the pumping electronics and the chorus is OK, Roisin detached as ever but her high register is a lot nicer.

Sorry Lex I can't get any further with this - it's SO FUCKING BORING, it sounds like every move is really tightly designed to make sure Roisin never risks doing anything tasteless or vulgar. 5 tracks in and I'm desperate to hear, I dunno, Infernal or the Cheeky Girls or ANYONE who doesn't sound quite so superior and BLOODLESS.

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I think I'm probably in the wrong mood for this though today - I'm feeling quite up and energetic.

I am sure also she has a lot of star presence live - she has more on video than on record.

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did you hear Ruby Blue?

i think she has a nice 'souly' voice with some sort of character. i suppose you could accuse Goldfrapp of sounding superior and bloodless too but i never feel this with these types (probably cos i am the same ha ha).

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Hmm not quite, I don't like Goldfrapp's music terribly much and I think she's imprisoned by an aesthetic a bit but her voice has more menace and gumption in it.

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'it sounds like every move is really tightly designed to make sure Roisin never risks doing anything tasteless or vulgar'

this is a criticism i've heard a lot over the years regarding numerous artists but i've never felt it myself. i mean why is it such a bad thing to try and aspire to quality or cleanliness in this way? 'because humans are flawed and we should accept or even celebrate that' yeah but tastelessness and vulgarity over-rated in pop perhaps! are we talking intentional vulgarity or non-intentional (is this even possible now?) tho. interesting talking point.

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I was going to say what Steve said - I love her voice because it's such a naturally great soul voice. I don't see how she's any more focused on tastefulness or that smooth veneer of sophistication than Annie, and she's no colder - actually the way she uses cold and warmth is v similar to Annie, the warmth is quite unexpected and subtle when it arrives in the middle of all the glam detachment. It's a pity you didn't get to the 'Dear Miami'/'Cry Baby'/'Tell Everybody' axis, which is my favourite, or 'Primitive', which is her big soul ballad, though then again 'You Know Me Better' is one of my favourites so that is no guarantee of anything. fwiw I basically agree re 'Let Me Know'.

Alison Goldfrapp's voice is a terrific sound in itself but I'm not convinced it's a good instrument for songs, it's better for just going "oooh-ooohh-ooohh" in the background. Luckily her songs tend to sound like this anyway because she doesn't enunciate.

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Well I think it's a personal preference - I am a messy, scruffy, cluttered person and generally the art I like is also messy and cluttered and prone to splurging - in other words I don't agree with or relate to definitions of tastefulness in eg. design (don't like "white space") or in this case pop. To an extent these definitions are projections, though!

With Roisin her visual style - judging from eg the album cover - seems a lot more surprising than her pop style.

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I am v much against vulgarity in pop this week after the complete horror which is Girls Aloud's 'Fling'. I've made the "too tasteful" criticism myself in the past: I think it really shows when the artist in question is using tastefulness, or an idea of it, as a substitute for personality; Roisin adds it as another facet to her personality (ditto Sade who is like the epitome of tastefulness and who I adore).

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Well I'm not as big a fan of Annie as many are* - most of the album passes me by, but on the big celebrated songs she's more vulnerable and funnier than the Roisin I've heard.

I don't think Roisin's tastefulness is exactly a smooth veneer of sophistication - I'm not trying to use it as an anti-bourgie diss. It's more the tastefulness of the connoisseur or minor artist: she knows her craft, knows how to get to "good" and never shows any interest in risking moving beyond that. It's the attention to unsurprising detail that bugs me.

*Though I'd reverse yr criticism to say that if this record was by someone called, I dunno, Rosa Murfisson and came from the hit factories of the frozen north you'd probably hate it!

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lockedintheatti.livejournal.com

I'd certainly agree with Primitive - I think it's the album's highlight and the one where she sounds least superior and bloodless (not that I mind her when she's doing that). I also think Scarlet Ribbons works surprisingly well on that score too, and stands out as well for its gentle reggae sound.

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i am a scruffy messy guy too really and not really big on 'white space' either (i dislike galleries in this way, i don't like a lot of 'minimal' dance music) but i don't feel that way about Roisin's kind of Pop altho i can see why it could be classed in this way.

the Sophie Ellis-Bextor comparison is good esp. with 'Let Me Know' which imo would be one of SEB's best singles had it been her.

essentially the reason i like RM, Goldfrapp etc. is pretty much the same reason i love the Pet Shop Boys (they have more warmth and kitsch only at certain points in their career) which is different to your reasons maybe.

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'I think it really shows when the artist in question is using tastefulness, or an idea of it, as a substitute for personality'

who do you have in mind out of interest?

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I'd say it's actually quite an achievement that Roisin manages to give you that impression, that she's so settled in this style, because this album is basically unlike anything she's done before (which basically = flirting with pop, getting distracted by experimental electronics, playing hard to get) - apart from 'The Time Is Now' she's never done anything so sleek and streamlined

No one in Sweden makes beats which hit as hard as these.

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I don't like S E-B either except for "Murder On The Dancefloor" and "China Heart", btw.

The thing with the PSBs is that Neil Tennant has always had a pretty thin, technically weak voice, plus they started making their music when they couldn't get the compressed fullness of sound a big pop album now tends to have. Their recent stuff has had a much richer sound but unfortunately Tennant's voice has become ever more strained trying to fill it (that awful high croak he uses) - on their "imperial" material there are huge gaps in the sound and he can hide in them, lurking and commentating.

All this has nothing to do with Roisin!

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'Ruby Blue' probably has more 'vulgarity' e.g. the title track itself, the robotic zaniness of 'Ramalama (Bang Bang)'. Roisin's done a more warped kooky thing in the past with some Moloko stuff but not the same thing i know.

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Maybe that's it though - it's like when the Pipettes etc make "perfect pop", that place they're coming from where there's a perfectable pop aesthetic to be approached. The Roisin album is like that except the aesthetic is up to date (with nods to early-80s funk). Which would make total sense in re. "attention to unsurprising detail".

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well The Knife beats hit hard but their range is more limited. i wonder if anyone would describe them as too tasteful based on the incredible sound of 'Silent Shout' or whether the weirdness cancels this out.

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katstevens.livejournal.com

The album is very inoffensive, isn't it? I guess she's going for coffee table types who do cocaine at dinner parties (odd drug reference here and there is sole claim to edgyness). However the production is very pleasing for the most part (varied, surprising changes in structure/tempo/banging-ness).

I really, really, really like Overpowered but I think this has grown out of being entranced by the video. Whilst Let Me Know has similar video style I agree that it's a really weak choice for 2nd single (definitely sub-Bextor).

BUT something I pinned down the other day is that the lyrical patterns (verse chorus etc) are VERY unsettling - they don't quite fit with the hi-tech dance music underneath. Nearly every song has a middle 8 that seems, well, out of place: eg a totally different melody after a big disco build-up where it really should have gone back into the chorus but BIGGER (or dropped out to a tiny whisper) - instead it's like they've shoved a leftover tune from another song into the slot as they weren't quite sure how to fill it.

I can't quite explain it properly as I don't have the album to hand, but compare to Sophie E-B: her 'pop' songs are definitely pop (slower, less of the bosh and more 'cosy' piano & harmonies) but her dance songs are actually DANCEABLE (eg all the bits of China Heart fit together very well yet still manage to build up from spooky beginnings to overblown mentalism by the end).

Arrgh I'm not quite sure what I'm getting at here.

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I think Lex and I are just appreciating Roisin as a talented artist in her own right, regardless of what mode she's operating in, whether it's pastiche or her impersonating 'perfect pop' rather than just being it.

Nobody think The Pipettes are really talented artists, I mean Roisin is surely a class or three above in all respects.

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Haha Sophie E-B, for one. Plus, you know...KT Tunstall, all that lot.

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