“It’s too pop, y’know? When things are very processed, it’s like… processed cheese”: Róisín Murphy on why she couldn’t get onboard with Charli XCX’s Brat summer

Given that they’re both steeped in club culture and dance music history, you might have expected Róisín Murphy to have fully embraced Charli XCX’s Brat and its accompanying summer. However, it seems that this particular neon green cultural happening left the former Moloko singer rather underwhelmed.

Asked by the Sunday Times if either she or her teenage kids were onboard the Brat bandwagon, Murphy said: “Not really, no”. Explaining her reasoning, she added: “It’s too pop, y’know? When things are very processed, it’s like… processed cheese.”

Charli XCX is, of course, one of the most famous exponents of hyperpop, which tends to push the dial in a consciously exaggerated way in terms of both sound and production. As such, Murphy’s criticisms do make a certain amount of sense… though it’s all a matter of taste, of course.

Murphy has more time for the likes of Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey, it seems, but can’t see the similarities between their career paths and her own.

“They’re all really great - but straight out of club culture? I don’t know. In terms of real characters, there are not that many, no.”

This isn’t to say that she’s not willing to step out of her club-focused comfort zone in the future, though: “More voiceless instrumentation, maybe, working with different forms - why not?” she says as she considers her future direction. “As I get older, I don’t wanna fight so much with genre and clutter in the music.”