Lopez Blogs

There is a lot of pre-stringy-pants love generated by bloggers over kookily dressed Roe-Sheen Murphy. They love her elegant style, her ability to create incredibly sophisticated pop tunes and her powerful stage presence. Actually, until I read a comment on XO today, I didn’t realise that I had been listening to Roisin’s debut album in my car for years now (a blank cd with no label i found randomly in a cd case, which when said commenter mentioned Sow Into You i realised was Ruby Blue). So actually without even knowing, I am a fan from way back!! Hurrah! I feel relevant. Her new album (Overpowered) merges contemporary pop sounds with good old fashioned disco dancing and for the most part pulls out a cracker. But here’s the rub... I’m a simple guy with simple needs and frankly Roisin is a bit too sophisticated for me. Whereas someone like Sophie Ellis Bextor manages to pull off elegantly polished power pop that sounds like it was crafted in heaven, Roisin (to me) sounds like she is just trying to be arty and pretentious for the sake of being arty and pretentious. At times it veers into Madonna and Kylie territory (not a bad thing but there is already a Madonna and kylie) and loses some of the beauty of the Moloko/Ruby Blues days. I’m confusing myself here because it is a solid album and there are bursts of genius creativity on it, but it’s probably too involved and deep for my currently frazzled mind (though like Robyn, I want to understand her!) Kylie X on the other hand is still a month away, but from what is known about it, is shaping up to be as divisive among the fans as albums like Impossible Princess and Body Language. Everyone by now has an opinion on frankly ace glamrock lead off single 2 Hearts, and are likely to be caught just as off guard with tracks like Sensitized (which, correct me if I am wrong, was for the Body Language sessions) – a Cathy Dennis number which has a simple melody but complex orchestration and would fit perfectly on Impossible Princess. Sparkling songs In My Arms and Stars are more traditional Kylie pop-dance that are made for the masses yet rise above the usual generic fluff out there. It still is a tragedy that Love Is A Drug and Excuse My French aren’t part of the X-perience, but thanks to mp3 and leaky leaks, you can make it part of yours. The edge: biased, i know, but always Kylie!

· Roisin’s potential singles: Overpowered, Let Me Know, You Know Me Better, Movie Star

· Kylie: Who knows?!