Róisín Murphy has confirmed details of her first new album in eight years. Entitled Hairless Toys, her third solo record is due out on 11 May via Play It Again Sam.
News of her forthcoming album is lead by the new track, Gone Fishing, a delicate, minimal electronic ballad. In a statement, Murphy explained how the song, and much of the album, was inspired by the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning and the “outcasts who could never fit into mainstream society”.
“This song was written after I watched the documentary film Paris Is Burning, having read an article which referenced it in a discussion about house music’s origins in black, gay culture,” the former Moloko singer said in a statement.
“I was deeply moved by this film. ‘I had to run this far from home’ – it’s about the outcasts who could never fit into mainstream society and how they created a safe place in the drag ‘Ball’ scene of New York in the ‘80s. The culture was a flamboyant reaction to persecution and disillusionment, the imagination and bravery of these kids is simply awe-inspiring.”
She continued: “I envisioned Gone Fishing almost as a song from a Broadway musical version of this story. The making of one’s own world, a safer world and the creation of a new, better family in music or youth culture is a theme I touch upon elsewhere on my album Hairless Toys.”
Hairless Toys is Murphy’s third solo album. It follows 2005’s Ruby Blue and 2007’s Overpowered.
