While the new Kylie album got all the hype, in my humble opinion it was another EMI artist who delivered the quality electro-pop album of 2007. We were huge Moloko fans here at CMU - 'Indigo' is one of my favourite tracks ever - but the disappointment we all felt when the personal relationship behind that outfit crumbled, taking the professional relationship with it, was overcome somewhat when one half of the duo, Ms Roisin Murphy, returned as a solo artist in 2005. 'Ruby Blue' was a great album, and the live shows that came with it even better, so we all got ever so slightly excited when we heard our copy of her follow up, 'Overpowered', was in the mail. And despite the fact this long player was quite a different beast to the Matthew Herbert produced solo debut, it delivered all the goods and more. 'Overpowered' is very much a pop album, and the word 'pop' has appeared in many of the reviews of it. Such pigeon holing seems to irk Murphy a little, partly because any artist of her calibre hates large quantities of her reviews to obsess over genre names, and possibly partly because the 'pop' word sometimes comes with negative connotations. But while we too may well use the 'pop' word (those paying attention will notice we already have - albeit with the word 'electro' prefixed), we do so on the understanding we mean pop in a very very good way. This is a brilliant album, and a definite album of the year. We tracked down Roisin for a quick pre-gig chat the other day and you'll be able to read the interview later today right here...
http://www.cmumusicnetwork.co.uk/albumsoftheyear