Pitchfork

We didn't hear much about Moloko in the U.S., but they had qualities that set them apart from the trip-hoppers they were first lumped with, most notably Portishead. Moloko could do icy noir when they wanted but they could also be playful and mischievous with an interest in off-kilter pop. Their albums don't hold up all that well but they got better the further they went from their trip-hop roots and left a handful of good singles behind. "Sing It Back" from I Am Not a Doctor is one such gem, and beyond its catchy chorus it now has further significance since a remix brought Moloko singer Róisín Murphy together with Matthew Herbert.

After the fortuitous meeting over the mixing board, Murphy and Herbert later decided to collaborate on this, her debut solo album. They wrote the songs together and Herbert handled the production, melding his intricate sampling technique, which proceeds according to strict compositional strictures, with contributions from other musicians, mostly horns and reeds. All songs were released piecemeal earlier this year on three low-profile 12" EPs titled Sequins 1-3.

It's hard to imagine anyone not ranking this is the best thing Murphy has ever done. Her singing has definitely improved in a technical sense, as she sounds more confident and controlled with her voice basically stripped of processing. She's also ironed out some of her trademark tics, mostly leaving behind the pinched nasal tone that seemed intended to impart "attitude" to certain Moloko tracks. And behind Murphy is some of Herbert's most balanced and functional music-- plenty of glitches and odd noises but always deployed in the service of the song.

The first seven tracks are very nearly flawless. "Leaving the City" combines a repetitious pleading refrain by Murphy ("No more goodbyes!") with tense backing from Herbert at his busiest, the out-of-tune guitar plucks imparting a palpable sense of urgency. "Through Time" is another highlight with its airy bossa nova feel, the subdued and spacious production complementing Murphy's voice at is rich and sultry peak. Throughout Herbert uses the horns primarily for quick percussive stabs and minute textural accents, magically evoking pop classicism with fussy micro-edited electronics. The towering opening run ends with the album's first single "If We're in Love", one of the 2005's best to date and a song that suggests that Murphy and Herbert could freelance as a hitmaking r&b songwriting duo if so inclined. "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" is almost as excellent but more unusual, sharing with "The Night of the Dancing Flame" a German cabaret feel, with dark jazz accents and Herbert molding gothic percussion into twisted gargoyle shapes.

From there Ruby Blue takes a short excursion into a more experimental direction that isn't quite as satisfying. The title track has an awesome overdriven guitar tone and sharp cool vocal layering but it feels very underwritten compared to what has come before while "Off On It" a meandering assemblage of cool noises. "Prelude to Love in the Making" is a short snippet of a track called "Love in the Making" that appeared complete on Sequins 2, and we're not missing much in excerpted form.

Ruby Blue ends with the gorgeous ballad "Closing of the Doors", played on the piano that was certainly used to help write the rest of the music and was supplanted throughout by Herbert's always fascinating synthesized stand-ins. It's a nice closer and a good reminder of what makes this record so good. When the songwriting is on, Ruby Blue seems perfect, the ultimate combination of human warmth and technological know-how.