''Ruby Blue'' is the debut solo studio album by Irish singer
Róisín Murphy. It was released on 13 June 2005 by
Echo
In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...
. After she and
Mark Brydon
Mark Errington Brydon is an English bassist, guitarist, composer, arranger, recording engineer, remix artist and producer best known as a member of the group Moloko.
Previous work
He comes from Sunderland, England, but established himself in ...
dissolved their
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
duo
Moloko
Moloko () were an Irish-English electronic music duo formed in Sheffield, England, consisting of vocalist Róisín Murphy and producer Mark Brydon. Blending elements of electronica and dance music, they are best known for their UK top 10 sin ...
, Murphy began working with producer and musician
Matthew Herbert. The songs were first released through three
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. s and were then compiled into a studio album.
The album often
samples sounds made by everyday objects and actions, including cosmetics, brass mice, dancing and ornaments.
It mixes the electronic music for which Moloko was known with jazz and pop styles. ''Ruby Blue'' received positive reviews from music critics and peaked at number 88 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
. The album spawned two singles, "
If We're in Love
"If We're in Love" is the debut single by Róisín Murphy, released in June 2005 from her debut solo album, '' Ruby Blue'' (2005).
Music video
The music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a m ...
" and "
Sow into You".
Background
Murphy and
Mark Brydon
Mark Errington Brydon is an English bassist, guitarist, composer, arranger, recording engineer, remix artist and producer best known as a member of the group Moloko.
Previous work
He comes from Sunderland, England, but established himself in ...
ended their romantic relationship but were still contractually obligated to record another album, which became
Moloko
Moloko () were an Irish-English electronic music duo formed in Sheffield, England, consisting of vocalist Róisín Murphy and producer Mark Brydon. Blending elements of electronica and dance music, they are best known for their UK top 10 sin ...
's 2003 album ''
Statues
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
''. When she finished touring, she found herself alone and had to re-evaluate the friendships she had built.
During this time, she got to know Matthew Herbert, whom she had met when he remixed several of Moloko's songs.
Murphy had wanted to work with him again, commenting that "it felt very natural
..because Matthew makes things seem quicker and easier".
During the first day of recording with Herbert, he had her bring an unspecified object so that they could hit it against a microphone and record the sound it made. Herbert's approach was that for Murphy to go solo, the album should revolve around her and the sounds that surround her.
They wanted to carry out recording and
audio mixing
Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic ...
in one room, so Herbert invested in a studio. There, Herbert recorded Murphy's voice without accompaniment so that she could better hear how her voice naturally sounded. On occasion, the two added instruments to a track by having her hire an instrumentalist, sometimes to play an unusual instrument such as a
hammered dulcimer.
After the pair had recorded a few songs, Murphy found that she enjoyed working with Herbert, and her label let her work freely without any deadline. When she presented them the album, they found it odd and did not hear any songs that would make successful singles. The
A&R division suggested that Murphy make some changes to make it more radio-friendly. Murphy refused, stating that she "wanted it to be as pure as possible". The label later came to support her. The songs on ''Ruby Blue'' were gradually released on limited-edition
12-inch vinyl
The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...
EPs titled ''
Sequins 1'', ''
Sequins 2'' and ''
Sequins 3'', in January, February and May 2005 respectively.
The cover art for ''Ruby Blue'' was painted by
Simon Henwood
Simon Henwood (born, 31 March 1965 in Portsmouth, England) is a British artist, author, film director, and music video director. Henwood first gained attention as a children's writer and later on for his paintings inspired by adolescence, as wel ...
. Murphy met Henwood in a pub, and Henwood, who was known for his simplified paintings of teenagers, thought that she would be a good subject for a painting.
Henwood came to Murphy's house the next week and, while they were looking through her wardrobe, decided to have her dressed in
sequin
A sequin () is a small, typically shiny, generally disk-shaped ornament.
Sequins are also referred to as paillettes, spangles, or ''diamanté'' (also spelled ''diamante''). Although the words sequins, paillettes, lentejuelas, and spangles can ...
s.
Murphy positioned her body in abstract shapes for Henwood to paint.
She developed a character, which Henwood described as a "disco electro pop diva with a 1940s look". His canvases were displayed at
The Hospital
''The Hospital'' is a 1971 American satirical film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert Bock. It was written by Paddy Chayefsky, who was awarded the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Chayefsky ...
in London, and Murphy purchased them "for
erkids so they can see what
heonce looked like".
The three EPs and both singles used Henwood's paintings in the cover, and he later directed the music videos for the singles.
Composition
''Ruby Blue'' is an
avant-pop
Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener. The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
and
glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
[ album that mixes electronica with early-20th century ]vocal jazz
Vocal jazz or jazz singing is an approach to jazz using the voice.
Vocal jazz emerged in the early twentieth century, with its roots in Blues. Popular blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey had a great deal of influence of jazz vocalis ...
, an interest of Herbert's. The instruments, primarily brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
and woodwinds
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...
, are layered over sampled noises such as alarm clocks, a water cooler, hairspray and helmets. Murphy's vocals were described as a combination of "a less-pained Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
and a less-sheltered Doris Day". She cited OutKast's 2003 double album ''Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
''Speakerboxxx/The Love Below'' is the fifth studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on September 23, 2003, by Arista Records. Issued as a double album, its length of over two hours is spread across solo albums from both ...
'' as an influence, stating that "it was experimental, it was soulful and funky". The album's lyrics are based on her romantic relationships with Brydon and then with Henwood.
The opening track
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
"Leaving the City" slowly builds up during the introduction
Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to:
General use
* Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music
* Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...
and uses out of tune instrumentation and a repetitive chorus. Following "Sinking Feeling", which uses a beat constructed from clicking sounds, is "Night of the Dancing Flame", which combines synthesisers with 1920s jazz. It is written in waltz time and was compared to Stevie Wonder's work during his peak. After opening with noises such as rustling and coughing, the longest track "Through Time" proceeds into a ballad that was compared to those by Carole King. The fifth track "Sow into You" was released as the album's second single. The song uses a metaphor of rain and harvests to describe love and sex, atop a baroque pop brass arrangement. "Dear Diary" is a torch song
A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affect ...
mixing Northern soul with disco music with the sounds of doorbells and telephones ringing.
The seventh track "If We're in Love" was released as the album's lead single. It is a downtempo
Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may b ...
song featuring a boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie mus ...
swing rhythm and sharp brass parts, opening with phased vocals and closing with a call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
between brass and keyboard parts. "Ramalama (Bang Bang)", the eighth track, contains a chorus of onomatopoeic lyrics delivered over a tribal rhythm. The title track uses overdriven guitar parts and layers of overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
vocals. Its lyrics caution a woman who has become out of control and its title was chosen to contrast feelings of passion and melancholy. "Off on It", a more experimental song with an unsteady rhythm, precedes "Prelude to Love in the Making", an excerpt of less than one minute taken from "Love in the Making" on ''Sequins 2''. The album closes with "The Closing of the Doors", a cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
-style ballad driven by the piano.
Critical reception
''Ruby Blue'' received positive reviews from music critics. Garry Mulholland of ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' called it "the kind of ambitious avant-pop hybrid that gets Björk rapturous acclaim". Heather Phares of AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
wrote that "Murphy keeps the alluring sensuality and unpredictable quirks that made Moloko unique, without sounding like she's rehashing where she's already been". Edward Oculicz of '' Stylus Magazine'' said the album "happily represents something of a midpoint between the downright oddity of Moloko's early albums ..and the mix of disco sensibility and wrenching balladry of their swansong". Dan Raper of ''PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
'' praised the album as "one of the best examples of production shaping but not overwhelming the artist's vision". ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s John Burgess agreed, stating that because of Herbert's production, Murphy sounded "sonically enticing and varied ..at times sultry, rude, powerful and tender across white noise
In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines ...
, waltz time signatures and jazz sass", but was mixed on the album overall, adding that the pair "often let their noodling eclipse the songs, leaving few you'll actually be able to sing back to anyone." ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
''s Mark Richardson remarked that "it's hard to imagine anyone not ranking this is the best thing Murphy has ever done" and that "when the songwriting is on, ''Ruby Blue'' seems perfect, the ultimate combination of human warmth and technological know-how." The website placed the album at number 41 on its list of the top 50 albums of 2005. In April 2015, Emily Barker of ''NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'', on her list of "50 Still-Awesome Albums That Made 2005 a Dynamite Year for Music", ranked the album at number 33.
Commercial performance
''Ruby Blue'' peaked at number 88 on the UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
, spending a sole week on the chart. The album was particularly successful in the Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
region of Belgium, where it reached number seven and remained on the albums chart for 12 weeks. Elsewhere in Europe, it charted within the top 30 in Finland and the top 50 in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Echo released the album in the United States on 25 April 2006, but it failed to chart on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album won a silver award from Independent Music Companies Association
which indicates 30,000 sales across Europe.
Soundtrack appearances
A third of the album's songs were used in the second season of the medical drama television series ''Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into s ...
'' in 2005. "Ruby Blue", "Ramalama (Bang Bang)", "Love in the Making" and "Night of the Dancing Flame" were used for " Make Me Lose Control", " Deny, Deny, Deny", " Bring the Pain" and " Much Too Much", respectively. The show's music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas
Alexandra Patsavas (born 1968) is Grammy and Emmy nominated American music supervisor, producer, & executive who has worked on over 100 films and television series, most notably '' The Twilight Saga'', '' The O.C.'', ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''Gossip ...
, stated that she had been a fan of Moloko and gave ''Ruby Blue'' a positive review. "Ruby Blue" is included on the first volume of the show's soundtrack, released on 27 September 2005.
Three songs have been used for the reality television series ''So You Think You Can Dance
''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and ha ...
''. "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" was used for a group performance on the sixth week of the second season. Contestants wore costumes and make-up to show them as zombie
A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...
s in a performance combining the 1968 horror film ''Night of the Living Dead
''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven pe ...
'' with Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's 1983 music video for " Thriller". At the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 16, 2007, honoring the best in U.S. prime time television programming at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. ...
, the performance was part of a three-way tie for Outstanding Choreography with a ''So You Think You Can Dance'' performance of Céline Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
's " Calling You", choreographed by Mia Michaels
Mia Michaels Melchiona (known professionally as Mia Michaels; born February 22, 1966) is an American choreographer and judge on the television show ''So You Think You Can Dance''. She has worked with Tom Cruise, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, M ...
, and the television special ''Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...
: An American Classic''. "Night of the Dancing Flame" was used for a couple's jazz dance
Jazz dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz about to Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of danc ...
in the fourth week of the following season with contestants Neil Haskell and Lauren Gottlieb. The performances were choreographed by Wade Robson
Wade, WADE, or Wades may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Wade, California, a former settlement
* Wade, Maine, a town
* Wade, Mississippi, a census-designated place
* Wade, North Carolina, a town
* Wade, Ohio, an unincorporated commu ...
. Robson also did a number to "Ruby Blue" in the fifth season of ''So You Think You Can Dance
''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and ha ...
''.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes of ''Ruby Blue''.
Musicians
* Róisín Murphy – vocals, track listing arrangement
* Geoff Smith – dulcimer
The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments.
Hammered dulcimers
The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...
; tongue
The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste ...
and other drums
* Pete Wraight – trumpet ; flugel ; flute
* Trevor Mires – trombone
* Dave O'Higgins – saxophone ; tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
* Phil Parnell – piano ; Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
, acoustic guitar, additional Rhodes
* Max de Wardener
Max de Wardener is a British composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist known for his scores for film and television and his work in jazz, classical, world and electronic music.
Career
Since graduating from York University and the Guildhall Scho ...
– acoustic bass ; bass
* Matthew Herbert – keys ; synths ; electric bass, Rhodes ; guitar ; bass ; banjo ; piano
* Eddie Stevens
Eddie Stevens is a British keyboardist, record producer, composer and arranger, best known for co-writing, arranging and touring with the UK groups Freakpower (with Norman Cook aka Fat Boy Slim); Moloko (as of 2000); and Zero 7.
He continued to w ...
– track listing arrangement
Technical
* Matthew Herbert – production
* Róisín Murphy – production
* Alexis Smith – engineering assistance
* Mandy Parnell
Mandy Parnell is a British audio mastering engineer, founder and senior mastering engineer at Black Saloon Studios in London, England. Parnell has worked on projects with a wide variety of artists including Aphex Twin, The XX, Feist, Sigur Ros, ...
– mastering
Artwork
* Simon Henwood
Simon Henwood (born, 31 March 1965 in Portsmouth, England) is a British artist, author, film director, and music video director. Henwood first gained attention as a children's writer and later on for his paintings inspired by adolescence, as wel ...
– original paintings, art direction
* Steffan MacMillan – design
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{Authority control
2005 debut albums
Avant-pop albums
The Echo Label albums
Róisín Murphy albums
Glitch (music) albums