“I’m actually proud of every record I’ve made and that’s an amazing thing to be able to say,” confesses Róisín Murphy. Róisín guards over her songwriting career like a lioness protecting its cubs and with good reason. A quick glance, from leftfield downtempo bangers like ‘Party Weirdo’ to Top Of The Pops smashes like ‘The Time Is Now’ and ‘Sing It Back’ with Moloko and a wildly divergent solo career that has flitted joyfully from Italian song to powerhouse tracks like ‘Let Me Know’ means she has stealthily developed into Britain’s most innovative and restless artist. Her latest album, Róisín Machine, has been quietly gestating for two decades and was ten years in the making. Singles trickled out, slowed down by gravity, life and small children, until a tipping point was reached.
Murphy’s rising status has been greatly enhanced by her presentational verve. During her Overpowered campaign she fine-tuned a visual language that has since become synonymous with any number of pop divas. “Everything I do is from the gut,” she says. “I’m always up to something, I’ve been directing videos and art-directing for years. The album is called Róisín Machine because I am a machine. I never stop.”