Tracks
Róisín Murphy: "Overpowered"
Single (2007)
By Mark Abraham | 8 May 2007
Disco-throaty oxy-toxins squirrel their way through the fucking brilliant squelchy synth line that beds the track; gated drums lope beneath like the weight of the furious speed of that synth is overpowering them. It's one of those great dance tracks where you could dance or droop: half of it is tweaking, half of it is tracking, and the weird pharmaceutical metaphors that provide the basis for most of Murphy's vocals are captured by Bugz in the Attic member Seiji's ungainly sprawl.
I dunno if this is what the majority of her new album will sound like although I do like that this renewed emphasis on disco doesn't lose the humor or narrative that defined Murphy's Ruby Blue (2005). We still get faux-dramatic moments where she harmonizes with herself about science trying to explain things and short-lipped syllables on "the chromosomes matched." She's talking about drugs, sure, but she's talking about love on the dance floor. Which makes it the perfect song to kill on the dance floor, because it's pretty clear the drug is arousal, through music, drugs, or whatever. This song is just like arousal: it's beautiful like glass but it bumps like a hurricane, is the point.
I dunno if this is what the majority of her new album will sound like although I do like that this renewed emphasis on disco doesn't lose the humor or narrative that defined Murphy's Ruby Blue (2005). We still get faux-dramatic moments where she harmonizes with herself about science trying to explain things and short-lipped syllables on "the chromosomes matched." She's talking about drugs, sure, but she's talking about love on the dance floor. Which makes it the perfect song to kill on the dance floor, because it's pretty clear the drug is arousal, through music, drugs, or whatever. This song is just like arousal: it's beautiful like glass but it bumps like a hurricane, is the point.