''Take Her Up to Monto'' is the fourth solo studio album by Irish singer

Róisín Murphy Róisín Marie Murphy ( , ; born 5 July 1973) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and record producer. She first became known in the 1990s as one half of the pop duo Moloko alongside English musician Mark Brydon. After the breakup of Moloko, she em ...

. It was released on 8 July 2016 by Play It Again Sam. The album was co-produced with longtime collaborator

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 ...

during the same five-week session period that resulted in Murphy's previous album, '' Hairless Toys'' (2015).

Background

''Take Her Up to Monto'' was recorded during the same sessions as Murphy's 2015 album '' Hairless Toys'', and included producer and longtime collaborator

. The title is derived from an

Irish folk Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there we ...

song of the same name, popularised by

The Dubliners The Dubliners were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personn ...

in the 1960s, which Murphy's father sang to her as a child.

Monto Monto was the nickname for the one-time red light district in the northeast of Dublin, Ireland. The Monto was roughly the area bounded by Talbot Street, Amiens Street, Gardiner Street and Seán McDermott Street (formerly Gloucester Street) in ...

is the nickname of Dublin's old

red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light districts are particu ...

. The album's release was preceded by two tracks, "Mastermind" and "Ten Miles High", as well as Murphy's self-directed video for the latter, which was filmed in London. Comparing the album with its predecessor, Murphy stated that "the visual language has changed. Less reference, a more aggressively modern aesthetic. It's about the London that I live in, it's a lot about architecture, it's about building and the future coming, its about here! It's a bit fizzier and more present tense, irreverent, with

guerilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tact ...

filming, montage and crazy shit. I hope it's a

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

that makes you feel good about being alive."

Critical reception

''Take Her Up to Monto'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 77, based on 21 reviews. ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was prin ...

'' described the album as "another reminder of why urphyhas more charm, chutzpah and ideas than most of her peers put together," calling it "a complex and endlessly enjoyable record." ''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'' described it as "an album of extremes, following its own wandering logic," suggesting "it feels as though she wants to see how much she can reduce her theatrical pop image into something small and seemingly impermanent." In ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'', Anna Alger wrote "Her songs on this record often feel like symphonies, with multiple movements evolving throughout a five-to-seven-minute period."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Take Her Up to Monto''.

Musicians

– lead vocals ; backing vocals *

– all keyboards, male vocals; programming ; percussion, flutes, guitar ; violin ;

floor tom A floor tom or low tom is a double-headed tom-tom drum which usually stands on the floor on three legs. However, they can also be attached to a cymbal stand with a drum clamp, or supported by a rim mount. It is a cylindrical drum without snare ...

s * Rhianna Kenny – backing vocals * Jodie Scantlebury – backing vocals * Rob Mullarkey – bass * Dave De Rose – drums ; floor toms * Jamie McCredie – guitar * Ally McNeil – additional programming

Technical

* Eddie Stevens – production * Mark Allaway – additional recording * Darius van Helfteren – mastering

Artwork

* Róisín Murphy – design, art direction, video concept, video direction * Ian Anderson – design, art direction * Ben Wearing – director of photography * Katie Lambert – video production

Charts

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Take Her Up to Monto (Roisin Murphy album) 2016 albums PIAS Recordings albums Róisín Murphy albums