Roisin Murphy - mp3s from Ruby Blue (2005) - Night of the Dancing Flame and Ramalama

That girl is Roisin.

These tracks are from Ruby Blue, the debut solo album from Irish songstress Roisin Murphy, frontwoman of Moloko. The songs on Ruby Blue are all over the map - each song fuses elements of jazz, late 70's/early 80's soul, rock, and electronica, with varying emphasis on each between tracks. I'm not sold on the lyrics yet--phrases like "is it through memory's rose-tinted glass" and "fools, they rush in," though sung sincerely, make me wince a little.

The sometimes overreaching fusion and trite bits are easy for me to ignore for the brilliant moments, though, like Night of the Dancing Flame, which opens and closes with hot funky brass, and has hints of Stevie Wonder's Hotter Than July. The twin horns at the two and a half minute mark blend in beautifully with bells and wah-ing electronic pulses, then cede to the funky underlying rhythm. That's why I listen to music, folks.

Equally fun is the opening track, Leaving the City, a tense staccato electronic sonic adventure in which our heroine says she's leaving the city, but wants her lover to tell her to stay. Then there's the soulful dance jam, If We're In Love, in which she asserts, "If we're in love, we should make love," and Ramalama, which is a third industrial pulsing, a third jazz singer sassiness, and a third "George of the Jungle."

Roisin Murphy mp3s:
Leaving the City
Ramalama