Take Her Up to Monto
by Róisín Murphy
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
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  1. Clash Music
    Jul 19, 2016
    90
    This isn’t download territory--it’s a journey, and if you buy a ticket, you have to put the time in to get to the destination. But what a destination.
  2. musicOMH.com
    Jul 13, 2016
    80
    For everyone who felt that eight year break was an eternity, Take Her Up To Monto will be manna from heaven. It’s yet another gloriously odd missive from Ms Murphy.
  3. The 405
    Jul 13, 2016
    80
    She has sharpened her writing to a fine point that pulls from life experience, unbridled emotion, theatricality and a sense of humour. Murphy has her own style, but more crucially, she has her own substance.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Jul 11, 2016
    80
    A curious, engaging work that mixes electronic and acoustic elements to create kaleidoscopic tracks.
  6. AllMusic
    Jul 11, 2016
    80
    As pop has become more eclectic, so has Murphy; even if it takes a little more effort to follow her on Monto, the results are worth it.
  7. The Quietus
    Jul 11, 2016
    80
    Take Her Up to Monto is the schizophrenic underbelly of Toys’ teary composure, and its much less interested in working through earthly lived experience than it is in traversing it.
  8. Drowned In Sound
    Jul 8, 2016
    80
    Monto occasionally overwhelms as its leading light pivots. Patience is rather vital as the album expands and Murphy continues to contemplate. There’s no padding here, but like any good trip into an intriguing mind you may emerge from the swell a touch dizzy.
  9. PopMatters
    Jul 8, 2016
    80
    Take Her Up to Monto is Róisín Murphy’s personal statement on love, romance, dance, and technology.
  10. Exclaim
    Jul 7, 2016
    80
    Although somewhat less accessible than Hairless Toys, Take Her Up to Monto sees Murphy coming in to her own as a solo artist.
  11. The Line of Best Fit
    Jul 7, 2016
    80
    Take Her Up to Monto continues Murphy’s reemergence as one of the most interesting and chameleonic electro artists of the moment.
  12. Mixmag
    Jul 5, 2016
    80
    This is a complex and endlessly enjoyable record.
  13. Mojo
    Jul 5, 2016
    80
    Murphy has smartly subverted the dancefloor diva image, and these songs come from the uncanny valley, android beauty not quite hiding their off-centre menace. [Aug 2016, p.98]
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  14. Uncut
    Jul 5, 2016
    80
    As with its predecessor, the album cherry-picks from the past, but comes with a contemporary sheen. It's hard to imagine her bettering this. [Aug 2016, p.80]
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  15. Pitchfork
    Jul 11, 2016
    78
    What elevates Take Her Up to Monto--and all of Murphy’s records, frankly--is a fearless, restless spirit.
  16. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Jul 25, 2016
    70
    For all the admiration and absorption of realness, Take Her Up To Monto is wholly surreal, enjoyable nonetheless.
  17. Record Collector
    Jul 15, 2016
    60
    At times it’s like the aural equivalent of wandering round a sparsely-attended fairground; there are echoes of a pop melody drifting alongside an eerie waltz, or the frenzy of a whispered lyric that cuts through somehow, despite its subtlety.
  18. DIY Magazine
    Jul 8, 2016
    60
    Gone are the days of Mokolo, but Take Her Up To Monto remains just as resilient; proving that Roisin Murphy’s productive world of pop madness has a rightful place in the present day.
  19. The Guardian
    Jul 7, 2016
    60
    It’s never less than intriguing, and certainly unique, but Take Her Up to Monto is diverting rather than stunning.
  20. The Independent (UK)
    Jul 7, 2016
    60
    Her debt to Grace Jones is evident in the elegant melodrama of “Ten Miles High”, but her application ranges much further on an album of intriguing strategies.
  21. NOW Magazine
    Jul 6, 2016
    60
    As the narrative grows sleepier, it feels as though she wants to see how much she can reduce her theatrical pop image into something small and seemingly impermanent.
  22. Consequence
    Jul 5, 2016
    58
    While the album features several standout tracks and stunning vocals, as a whole, over-shined production and mashed-up genres obscure Murphy’s strengths.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 26
  3. Negative: 2 out of 26
  1. crunchycelery
    Jul 8, 2016
    9
    How refreshing to forgo the usual sprawling wait times and get two Róisín Murphy releases within one year! And while these songs where helmedHow refreshing to forgo the usual sprawling wait times and get two Róisín Murphy releases within one year! And while these songs where helmed from the same pool of starting material that birthed last year’s beautiful Hairless Toys, Take Her Up To Monto doesn’t quite sound like a progression, nor retread either. Mixing up the old and the new, Murphy has once again created a very singular world with this record.
    One of the defining characteristics of Hairless Toys’ elongated and sometimes linear progressions were the unexpected turns the songs would take coming round the bridge. Monto builds on these turns, with songs often segueing between three or four different segments in the span of one song. “Mastermind”, our first taste of the record, kicks things off with percolating synths and dissonant harmonies narrating the prologue, picking up for summery introspection before descending into bubbling 80s synth drums and sprawling funk guitars and fading out by way of pitched down and harmonized vocal humming.
    “Thoughts Wasted” (a personal favourite) splits a stuttering intro a frantic and skittish string jaunt with sliding xylophones, and hazy introspection with each section being spliced together by fuzzy pianos.
    This is done somewhat easily as song structure is much more loose here than it has ever been with Murphy. This is epitomized on the somewhat shapeless “Nervous Sleep”, a sprawling 7-minute abstract stream of consciousness where underwater synths scatter over a subtlety pulsing (almost ticking) beat; voices moving in and out of frame deliriously illustrating its title’s concept.
    This phase shifting of composition, and loose structure can make the first few listens of these songs somewhat hard to get into. Whether the compositions at the present moment very sparse or dense, the unpredictability of it all can leave you struggling to grab a hold of anything on a first listen. Melody takes a bit of a backseat on this effort, in preference of rhythmic and percussive swells. This also plays into the lack of accessibility, in that it becomes harder to grasp on a song’s motif when chords land so dizzyingly all over the place. I find it somewhat surprising that many reviews have stated THUTM is more accessible than its “alienating” predecessor, as Hairless Toys was content to stick to more solid ideas while stretching them out, whereas Monto can be a baffling enigma hard to delve into, requiring repeated entries before the ideas and sounds really take any discernible shape.
    The record displays welcome eclecticism from the pop maven, from the dark electro cabaret of “Pretty Gardens” ripe with humourous innuendo, to the Bossa Nova bounce of the sweetly blissful “Lip Service”. “Romantic Comedy” pins the humour of “Pretty Gardens” to dizzying chord arrangements and glittery synth lines.
    And for someone who’s favourite track from Hairless Toys was the title track, this record offers up quite a few dazzlingly atmospheric and ethereal takes by way of “Whatever” a sparkly piano whisper of a ballad, and the hazy introspection of “Sitting and Counting”.
    The only disappointment for me here is lead single “Ten Miles Up” which glides on a few simple ideas introduced at the start to only reach any significant change ¾ of the way in when the beat picks up for a danceable bridge, but unfortunately leaves before one can even reap the sonic benefits of this change. It sounds more like an intro song than anything, but “Mastermind” clearly does a much better job. At 5:34 minutes it overstays its welcome and underperforms during its stay.
    A strange choice for a single, let alone a lead, but none of the songs here really harness any single potential anyways. Which is no real problem, Murphy’s dedication to her craft and her world create a more dynamic listening experience than a collection of potential hits.
    What we’re left with is another sonic world, ripe with layers upon layers, to really dive in and deconstruct, trying to decipher the maddening theatrics of an artist so incredibly fascinating as Róisín Murphy.    … Full Review »
  2. DENIS-LESNIK
    Oct 15, 2016
    5
    Любопытная работа бывшей солистки Moloko, которая сочетает электронные и акустические элементы для создания калейдоскопических дорожек ЧитатьЛюбопытная работа бывшей солистки Moloko, которая сочетает электронные и акустические элементы для создания калейдоскопических дорожек Читать далее http://muztravel.by/news/849-govorim-o-take-her-up-to-monto-ot-r243is237n-murphy.html… Full Review »
  3. CharliieBrown
    Jul 14, 2016
    9
    No doubt this is one of the best albums of 2016 so far, Róisín make it again, after the hypnotical Hairless Toys she come as the professional,No doubt this is one of the best albums of 2016 so far, Róisín make it again, after the hypnotical Hairless Toys she come as the professional, creative and passionate artist she is to show the magnificent quality for her new audiovisual project; a masterpiece full of mind-bending sounds.… Full Review »
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