"It’s virtually obligatory when reviewing Murphy’s solo albums to bemoan her failure to become wildly famous; it’s understandably held to be a sad indictment of British pop culture that an artist who makes consistently intriguing, adventurous music that is nevertheless firmly rooted in electronic pop, who is possessed of an intriguing, individual creative vision and who looks fantastic – like a proper pop star, rather than a blandly pretty face with access to a stylist – seems condemned to exist in the margins of cult success".
Alexis Petridis, The Guardian
"Whatever" is the second single from Irish singer-songwriter Róisín Murphy's fourth studio album Take Her Up to Monto (2016), and the accompanying music video picks up where "Ten Miles High" left off. Critics like Pitchfork's Benjamin Scheim and Alexis Petridis have both noted that Monto takes Murphy further away from the realm of mainstream pop success that she was once slated to achieve, with its' fearless level of experimentation and risk-taking and titular reference to an old Irish folk song. The eccentric avant-garde costumes from 2007's Overpoweredare gone, replaced by a construction worker's jacket and helmet to accompany Murphy as she plumbs the depths of 'hyperreal self-awareness'.
In the video, Murphy walks through central London, surrounded by people with emoji faces and Snapchat filters. Massive location pins drop down from the sky as Murphy muses about intimacy and disconnection in our contemporary digitalized modernity, via an accessible electro-ballad:
'Whatever floats your boat's your lifestyle choicesYou take a little coke and ride wild horsesBut when I talk to you I don't hear voicesI get to live a life as if by proxyI shouldn't be surprised you'd try and stop meForever it's Spring for you, not for me
I am a broken man, and I won't make a fussI will be gone before you miss me, my loveIn writing from the edge, your correspondentHe won't let you forget that he's despondentBut you're unavailable for any commentJust livin' for the day of our next encounterI never found a way to live without herI'm sorry to say it, I know it's a downerThe provocation of desire's often mundaneNever complain, never explain, my love
Lyrics: Genius
