Princess Superstar - 'My Machine' (K7) Released 12/09/05

The rock opera...One of pop culture’s most embarrassing fascinations last taken seriously in the seventies has unfortunately returned. On her fifth studio album the inimitable Princess Superstar has lost the plot. Or at least found too much of it…

The premise of ‘My Machine’ is this; In the year 2080 celebrity culture has gone bezerk and through a vast army of clones, or ‘Duplicants’, Ms. Superstar has become every celebrity, weather girl, fashion designer, movie star, chef, model and pop star. Kids are now named after advertising slogans and her rise and eventual fall is told in a classroom by a pupil doing a report for (ahem) ‘Ancient Speaking Class’. Apparently after ‘The Great Brain Revolution’ everyone is now a telepath and schools teach the spoken word like a foreign language. Sound a little far fetched? This is so overblown it makes the ridiculous plot of The Who’s 'Tommy' seem like an episode of Eastenders…

Fortunately for Superstar and her listeners the music is incredible. A completely new sound has been discovered on ‘My Machine’ somewhere between vintage Daft Punk and the sexy-lady electro funk of Missy Elliott. Listening to this record is a very frustrating experience indeed. The menacing robot hip hop of choons like ‘I Like It A Lot’ upon which she manages to whisper "Hey Hey Hey" aggressively like Karen O singing into the drum of an empty washing machine. The excellently titled ‘Sex, Drugs And Drugs’ rocks with the force of ten Goldfrapps, ‘Initially’ booms with sheer electronic majesty, and the albums title track is Laurie Anderson after sticking a knitting needle in the mains. ‘My Machine’s chorus rolls over your endorphins like good ice-cream or bad E.

Judging this album simply by its songs would rank this CD up with ‘Homework’, ‘Surrender’ and even ‘Leftism’ through its passionately inventive electro snaps, jerks and wobbles. The vocals are superb with the Princess name checking and honouring hip hop legends as she raps, sings and spits beautifully with the force of a Tsunami. Unfortunately the concept album the songs are tied around is at times un-****ing-bearable. It’s not even funny, with every spoken word skit punishing your brain like a science fiction TV series that even Channel 5 would deem as trash. The convoluted warning against commercialism and celebrity is naïve to say the least and makes a stunning pop album a jagged mess of sarcasm and irony. Disappointing, but only because the songs are magnificent and surely that has to be to her credit.