Customer Reviews

Overpowered

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Róisín Murphy, once the former Moloko frontwoman in dance-pop act Moloko, is bracingly unpredictable.
Following up her underperforming debut "Ruby Blue", her profoundly offbeat album with electronic experimentalist Matthew Herbert , she is back with her second solo album.
Now signed to EMI, she's made her most coherent album yet.
Murphy's songwriting appears to be stronger than ever with a consistent style and sound emerging throughout.
She puts this assured sense of purpose, in part, down to a recent obsession with old disco and house music.
In her own words she wanted "Overpowered" to be an album to find a link between that music and what she could achieve in a modern way.
Combining her lively songwriting ability with the contributions of a host of underground house music talent, she creates eleven songs ripe for chart success, showing contagiously shiny disco-pop.
Although she sometimes sounds like prime-time Madonna, she fuses this with an acid house energy, while her lyrics are a million miles from 'the material girl'.
The opening lines of the album, "Your data, my data/ The chromosomes match", on the ebullient "Overpowered", lead into a chorus about "oxytoxins flowing ever into my brain", while the wonderful slowie, "Dear Miami", appears to be an elegy for that city.
Somehow this lyrical eccentricity makes the thoroughly catchy tunes on offer all the more appealing.
Whether indulging in '80s funk, club bangers or rocking electroclash, Róisín allows no creative slack.

Whatever that has been said about Overpowered and Roisin Murphy is true and her second solo album after Moloko remains as the most underrated gem of 2007. Period.

While Kylie's X brings on the big electro-clash beats, Rosin Murphy's Overpowered is an extremely fitting tribute to the late 80's/early 90's dancefloor with late night house grooves and matching electro synths to form a segue of formidable dance numbers. Working with Bugz in the Attic and Andy Cato of Groove Armada, the music on Overpowered ranges from straight-out dance anthems (You Know Me Better, Dear Miami, Cry Baby) to synth-heavy electro (Overpowered, Movie Star) and heady trip hop (Primitive, Scarlet Ribbons). And thanks to a keen ear on Grey's Anatomy, these songs have been featured in the show on a few occasions.

There's more than enough on Overpowered to keep you on replay and tapping your feet away on the dance floor. One of 2007's best! (A)

What a guilty 'synth' pleasure this album is... Retro-disco at its best... Reminds you about everything that was fabulous and 'chic' in the 80s - like big hair and shoulder pads! From the moment I saw Roisin strutting in the diner with so much sass and irony in the video for 'Let Me Know', I knew I was sold!

Best CD I have bought in ages! It's really timeless. It could have been made any time during the last 30 years. If you're in doubt..... buy it!

The album is superior in the production and consistency from anything Moloko or the talented Roisin (her previous solo effort) have releast to date. Now check the date of this review. Other feedback already has better descriptions of songs and explanations of why this is a must have. I know it's a mind-blower for folks like me who JUST learned about this album!! Congrats to Amazon for having it for sale since I always go to iTunes first. Strive to be more than #2 Amazon and pay-up (or whatever naughty things you must do) to keep offering more exclusives gems like this in the US!

RM's second album is very different from her debut cd. I think this one is vastly superior. Over the past few years, a lot of artists have been trying to recreate the sound of 80s music. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This album is the best "new 80s sound" I've heard. Not just 80s, either, but 70s too.

The entire album is entertaining and interesting. It's electro/dance/pop/80s R&B/disco. It's so retro and authentic sounding at times that if I heard a few of these songs playing on the radio and didn't know what they were, I could maybe be tricked into thinking they were actually recorded in the 80s. At the same time, they sound fresh with modern production.

The opening track Overpowered reminds me a lot of Depeche Mode, and that's fine with me since I'm a fan of theirs too. YKMB is my favorite song by Roisin. It's catchy and melodic and doesn't have a dull moment throughout the whole song. FITMS sounds like late 70s/early 80s disco/R&B. It reminds me of when R&B music was actually good. There is even an electronic blip in it that sounds like an old video game sound effect---which only adds to the appeal in my opinion. Let Me Know is a an early 80s sounding pop song, and the video looks 80s inspired complete with odd cheesy dance moves, and I mean that in a good way.

All of the songs are worth many repeated listenings, but one that I just can't really get into is Dear Miami. Musically it's fine. The lyrics are about global warming, and that's good to get a message out there on it, but it's depressing. Ro delivers them in a humorous but sarcastic tone, and it just leaves me wondering why she chose that city as representing the problem. She must have had quite an impression of Miami. It certainly sounds like a slam.

Primitive and Scarlet Ribbons are the only slow/ballad songs. They took a little more getting used to than the upbeat tracks, but I like them also. The album is very well put together and has a nice flow, although I like rearranging the tracks in a slightly different order and also inserting some of the b-sides that were omitted. She recorded several b-sides that are on mostly out of print and rare singles, and discarded tracks that weren't released. It's too bad that some of them were not included on the album, they are very good too. If you enjoy this album, you will like the other songs, too. They are worth searching out.

If you like late 70s disco and 80s music, and newer music by artists such as Goldfrapp, Robyn, Lady Gaga, The Killers, MGMT, or Cyndi Lauper's 2008 album, etc. with an "80s sound", try this and you may be pleasantly surprised. Unlike some of the others, I continue to listen to this album and it's still fresh and catchy.

5 star material on 12 tracks, and one of the best albums to be released in the past 15 years, but I rated it 4 1/2 stars because I'm not crazy about Dear Miami, and the album omits a few wonderful tracks such as Foolish, Modern Timing, Off and On, and Sweet Nothings.

Roisin Murphy's Overpowered album is amazing. I had been looking for this CD for a long time, when it donned on me that Amazon probably had it all along. If you like Murphy's "Ramalama," you'll love this entire CD. Not even iTunes has these songs!

This is an awesome album, with some of the best beats and vocals from this past year - but what happened to a domestic release? There are still some songs that are unavailable from the initial UK release...the best song, I think, is Cry Baby: sexy, funky basssline and a great, sassy lyric. And just for the record: Dear Miami is about global warming (disappearing under melting snow is a reference to the nearness of sea level), not the death of the club scene there (it's alive and well)...

I really love this album. The strength of the song "Overpowered" was enough to convince me to buy the album. Other great songs are "Let Me Know" and "You Know Me Better." My only complaint is that the album does not seem very cohesive. Never-the-less the songs I mentioned are slick and sweetened with Roisin's amazing voice.

Unlike "Ruby Blue" this one is much more accessible; you'll likely hear some of this album's tracks on the dance floor, or find yourself singing to it. Sometimes it sounds like influences of Donna Summer, Goldfrapp, I won't be surprised if some of these end up on karaoke discs. It's coherent dance pop with that disco funk attitude that still makes it uniquely Roisin. For infectious dance get "Let Me Know" (this song's got to have the best intro I've heard in years), "You Know Me Better" (think 80s Madonna), "Dear Miami" (my fav track- very electro). If you're nostalgic for Moloko, get "Footprints" (very 70s) and "Tell Everybody". Need a trip-hop fix, get "Primitive" (sounds really awesome live).