I'm still unclear as to whether ROISIN MURPHY is actually a fully-fledged solo artist these days or whether her solo work is simply a break from Moloko, but she's obviously very serious about it as she's recently been performing with an eight-strong live band across Europe and then gatecrashing the Glastonbury Festival.
But whatever the deal is, she's seamlessly bridged the gap from Moloko to solo work with some aplomb, as "If We're In Love" is every inch as infectious as any of Moloko's previous danceable chart-botherers, initially coming on all burpy and electronic with Roisin supplying a suitably ultra-sultry vocal of the type we're becoming accustomed to where's she concerned. Clearly sexual frustration is the lyrical order of the day, with the full-on chorus "If we're in love, we should make love, but when will that be?" delivered with roughly equal percentages of coyness and disappointment.
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Producer Matthew Herbert, meanwhile, is clearly an effective foil, as he's tapped into a distinctly old skool disco-funk vibe here that's as close to Earth Wind & Fire as Goldfrapp's alienated electro-pop. Yet in tandem with strategically inserted brass, impressive hooks and Murphy's persuasive voice, the whole thing sounds like the sort of summery pop that can't fail to dent the upper reaches of the charts.
She's a canny lass, that Roisin Murphy, and with this single she's very much calling the shots once again. "If We're In Love" seems like a rhetorical question, so let's stop prevarricating and simply get down to it, eh?
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