#24: Ruby Blue

Roisin Murphy, Ruby Blue.
I like to think I was on to Roisin Murphy from the beginning. Moloko's "The Time is Now" seemed to be playing as soon as I stepped off the plane at Heathrow in the fall of 2000. Even their second and more straight-ahead single "Sing it Back" did it for me. That voice... so seductive.

So Murphy's now out on her own, but not alone. Electro-guru Matthew Herbert provides the diverse beats, stripped down and, rare in the dance-music world, delicate. "Sow Into You" and "If We're In Love" are the clubby anthems (and contenders for single of the year), but most tracks here showcase Murphy's lyrical lovey-dovey, making it a very hot hookup album for you twenty-somethings out there. "Through Time" is one of many to kick Norah Jones' sweet ass.

But unexplainably, this disc became a big part of my experience taking (and passing--yay) the bar this past year. Like watching Blind Date or Aqua Teen before bed (both of which I often did) this took me away from what I was doing and where I was, which was holed up in my apartment in NoVa or in lovely Ontario, CA for five days... so Roisin, I thank you for that, if nothing else. That and intelligent female electro-dance music that makes self-conscious white men dance.