roísín murphy - "the closing of the doors" (from the ruby blue lp, available for purchase as an import here.)

so, the synesthesia makes listening to music a visual as well as an auditory experience. the major problem: i really can't listen to music that doesn't match the atmosphere or mood. which means that i probably hit skip on my ipod more than the average listener; which means that i'm ponying up for new batteries more often--quite literally, the price i pay. indeed, i can only write about a song like this and hope to do it justice at the closing of the day. synesthetically speaking, it's a fairly bleak affair, w/ dapples of light contributed by a french horn part and some backing vocals. conveniently, this also happens to sum up the song as well.

i probably have a moloko album somewhere; some morcheeba and hooverphonic albums, too, but i used to be into all kinds of shit. it should follow, then, that a roísín murphy solo album would be right up there w/ a spoken-word album from the guy what used to dance for prodigy. early reviews, though, were quite enthusiastic; "if we're in love" reduced some to glossolalia--not me, mind; i don't dislike it, i just can't make a good argument for liking it, though. why i persisted is still beyond me, but i'm glad i did.

"the closing of the doors" is a remarkable, improbably elegant thing. it suggests, quite unintentionally, a perfect counterpoint, in both tone and message, to colin blunstone's "caroline goodbye." "i knew a man who was better," she whispers, "much better than that," and the french horn is the only component of the song to betray w/ what anguish those thoughts were put into words. what "the closing of the doors" does exceptionally well is fuse two popular early 70's strands of--if richard can forgive me--female pop. it's like carly simon w/o the pretension and bathos, and a leaner (i really hope he can forgive me) carpenters. even supporters couldn't have expected such refined melancholy from a woman who sang "tatty narja."