Roisin Murphy
Take Her Up to Monto
Play It Again Sam

Coming so soon after last year’s wonderful Hairless Toys, the Mercury Prize-nominated album that arrived after an almost eight-year hiatus, you’d be forgiven for thinking Irish songwriter Roisin Murphy’s latest release was simply a cash-in collection of B-sides and Hairless cast offs. It’s true these nine new tracks were created during the same recording sessions and they do share a similar tone. However, the ex-Moloko vocalist has said that if the two albums are siblings, Hairless Toys would be “the nice child” while Take Her Up to Monto would be the “compli­ca­ted one”. While the electro-pop on Hairless was far from convention­al, it was possibly Murphy at her most mainstream. THUTM takes it up another quirky notch. Cosmic opener Mastermind is a nearly seven-minute prog-disco journey through a galaxy of synth arpeggios and laser-sharp beats, while Pretty Gardens sounds like Portishead playing jazzy baroque pop. It’s a huge shame that Murphy isn’t more famous, but the unique creativity on THUTM could be the very thing preventing the electronica diva from achieving more than cult status.