Hairless Toys

Background

The announcement of the album was accompanied by a stream of the first track, "Gone Fishing", which Murphy confirmed was inspired by the 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning.

A four-minute edit of "Exploitation" was later issued as the first single, with a music video directed by Murphy herself released on 13 April 2015. Murphy commented that the song is about "selling out, manipulation and exploitation within creative work and in a relationship." Murphy later explained that the song "came from being a bit wry, a bit ironic. It's got a bit of a twinkle in its eye. It's not to be taken too seriously."

Speaking about the record, Murphy wrote:

"There was a desire to make an unquestionably refined record. It’s multi layered, electronic and live instrumentation, musically it goes to places most pop music never does. It’s emotionally bare and laced with irony. I definitely didn’t set out to make something unique per-se but [...] it really is like nothing you’ve ever heard before. So it’s impossible to describe except to say..it’s heartfelt."

Murphy directed accompanying music videos for the singles "Exploitation", "Evil Eyes", "Unputdownable" and "House of Glass".

Music

Harriet Gibsone of The Guardian found "Gone Fishing" contains "Italo-disco [,] house mutations and unusual country diversions". Heather Phares of AllMusic stated second track and second single "Evil Eyes" has an "irresistible groove". Christopher Monk of musicOMH pointed out the "scuttling percussion, Nile Rodgers-esque guitar, [and] atonal piano stabs" of "Exploitation", while Jim Carroll called the lead single "a track where the groove is simple and sparse, works with considerable panache." Phares noted the "synth bass and waggish backing vocals on 'Uninvited Guest'", and called "Exile" "a dreamy bit of torch twang". In her review for Pitchfork Media, Katherine St. Asaph pointed out that "Exile" is "delivered in a wearied whisper". St. Asaph judged "Unputdownable" to be "a traditional Murphy extended metaphor—lover as page-turning book", continuing on to say that "'House of Glass' delivers grand statements, often set stark against the music". Monk described "Hairless Toys (Gotta Hurt)" as a "lovely ballad" and thought "Unputdownable" to "end the album on a downer, before it transforms into something quite uplifting".

Critical reception

Hairless Toys received positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 80 based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". The Quietus called the album "a complete masterwork," praising Murphy as "still some serious way ahead of her peers." Pitchfork Media called Hairless Toys "the most cerebral work of Murphy's decades-long career" and described it as "all gleaming and immaculate from a distance, sharp and shattered if you get too close." Heather Phares of AllMusic stated that the album "opts for a more personal approach that is so powerful in part because it's so quiet," declaring it "a welcome return and Murphy's most satisfying album yet". Electronic Beats called the album "a decisive step forward and a definitively experimental pop record, delivered with a confidence that defies the brevity expected of chart fodder."

The Guardian wrote that Hairless Toys is "pure, evocative elegance". Reviewing the album for Toronto newspaper Now, Kevin Ritchie named it the album of the week, writing that it "fuses delicate, slow-burning deep-house-type rhythms with pop twang and the odd bit of glittering glam". Mixmag also noted the album's integration of "elegant deep house [...] country-flecked soul, and idiosyncratic downtempo", and called it "a career high". Writing for The Irish Times, Jim Carroll said the eight-year gap between albums for Murphy "has not lessened her knack for beautifully finessed tunes pulled together with sublime electropop belts and braces." Writing for musicOMH, Christopher Monk wrote that the album is "less interested in snagging listeners' ears with catchy hooks or luring them on to the dancefloor, and more interested in building a strange, compelling atmosphere". Drowned in Sound described the album as "a wonderfully dark and seething record" and a work to "absorb alone".

Track listing

All tracks written by Róisín Murphy and Eddie Stevens.

Personnel

Credits adapted from album liner notes.