You might remember Irish singer-songwriter Róisín Murphy as being one-half of electronic pop duo Moloko, or for being a notably eccentric fashion icon. Murphy has stripped back some of the theatricality for her most recent album, Hairless Toys (2015), but I'm still intrigued by the effortless avant-garde spirit of her second solo album, Overpowered (2007).
As The Guardian's Garry Mulholland notes, Overpowered comes across as a blend of Bjork and Kylie Minogue, a rare jewel that allows its arthouse, disco and electropop influences to shine brilliantly: "a sumptuous 11-track, all-killer-no-filler, electro-disco gem ...effortlessly tap[ping] into the perennial glory of feeling lost and lonely at the disco at the end of the world". Tracks like "Let Me Know", "You Know Me Better", "Body Language" and "Movie Star" bring a bright and soulful energy that make for some inspired moves on the dancefloor (or in the privacy of bedrooms, showers and individual imaginations).
The title track for the album is one of my favourite Murphy songs, adding a deft spin to the typical pop cliché of being hopelessly in love (or merely attracted) to someone: "When I think that I'm over you/ I'm overpowered/ It's long overdue/ I'm overpowered".
The lyrical spin lies in the song's verses, where Murphy unpretentiously alludes to the discourse of neuroscience to contemplate on her lyrical persona's mental state:
'As science struggles onTo try to explainOxy-toxins flowingEver into my brain
A chemical reasonIf reason's your gameA chemical needingIs there in the brain
With preprogrammed meaningsLike a little more pepAlien feelingsWe have to accept'
There's also an allusion to Freudian psychoanalysis (Need the love object/ To reciprocate); Murphy effortlessly merges different strands of academic discourse on love and sex with pop's tradition of evocating that 'loving feeling' to create an understated, postmodern and infectious gem of a song. Murphy literally proves that pop doesn't have to be shallow and vapid to seduce our eardrums; pop can stray from the 'Dr Fox' formula of seducing listeners with catchy, earwormy tunes and phrases (and visuals of beautiful, charismatic performers) while numbing their critical faculties:
"The Dr. Fox effect can be explained by noting that a large surge in “feel good” chemicals will turn off our critical sense. Funny, charming, and persuasive people signal to our brains that everything is as it should be. Their smooth behavior boosts our serotonin levels, which turn off our critical sense and increase our feeling of satisfaction—so much so that our initial beliefs are never subjected to scrutiny in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the anterior insula, regions of the brain involved in reflecting critically on new information."
Berit Brogaard, Salon, 2015
