About

Hit Parade is the sixth solo studio album by Irish singer Róisín Murphy, released on 8 September 2023 through Ninja Tune. It was produced by DJ Koze and was preceded by the singles "CooCool", "Can't Replicate" (exclusively as a 12-inch single), "The Universe", "Fader" and "You Knew". "CooCool" was released alongside Murphy's announcement when she had signed to Ninja Tune.

From Maurice Fulton to Matthew Herbert, Murphy has been blessed to collaborate with all-star dance producers throughout her career, but none have matched her for sheer off-the-walls weirdness as perfectly as DJ Koze. From their first collaboration— the dazzling astral house of “Illumination” off of Koze’s 2018 album Knock Knock— the duo have smuggled moments of absurdity into the mix that only heighten the music. The put-on American accent that Murphy affects on “The Universe” and “Crazy Ants Reprise” strikes as both a call-back to her old days in Moloko, an outgrowth of the characters she plays on TikTok, and a hybrid of Koze’s own love for babbling non-sequiturs. On “The House,” an incredibly sticky funk beat is fraught with anxiety, as Koze stutters and stops the beat for Murphy to interject. When they’re not seeding their tracks with brazen silliness, Koze and Murphy have an unrivaled sense of space and sensuality. “Can’t Replicate” is the album’s most glorious high point, a hypnotic deep house banger that makes an unbelievably sexy moment of mutual recognition last until the end of time.

It’s also a showcase for how powerful Murphy can sound in moments of vulnerability, giving a performance built almost entirely from exhales that gradually transforms bruised hesitancy into bracing exhilaration. The absolutely devastating “You Knew” is just as moving. After years spent striving for a breakthrough and many more course-correcting back toward a career as a successful solo auteur, Hit Parade is the kind of highly original pop assemblage that the Irish singer has seemingly always wanted to make, a record of peerless highs whose best and worst quality is how alienating it just so happens to be. — (via Pitchfork)

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Label: Ninja Tune – ZEN290
Format: 2x Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Europe
Released: Sep 8, 2023
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul, Pop
Style: Balearic, Future Jazz, Nu-Disco, Trip Hop
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File under: Alternative / Indie / Pop