Album review: Hit Parade, by Róisín Murphy - so what's the music like?
Róisín Murphy has just released Hit Parade. Pocture: Matt Crossick/PA Wire
- Róisín Murphy
- Hit Parade
- ★★★☆☆
The narrative that has emerged around Róisín Murphy’s new album is that it is a masterpiece tainted by her comments about puberty blockers. That is the consensus, more or less, among publications that have reviewed it – a few, including Rolling Stone, have blanked it entirely.
But those who decide they want to engage with the record might be puzzled by the ferocity of the praise and perhaps underwhelmed by what comes out of the speakers. Hit Parade is inventive and engaging, and Murphy and producer Stefan Kozalla (aka DJ Koze) clearly have studio chemistry. At the same time, it is, in places, aggressively wonky and rarely matches the heights of the Wicklow artist’s previous release, the sublime Róisín Machine.
That album was her true masterpiece – a scintillating dark disco odyssey that set controls for the dance floor and showcased Murphy’s talent for melodies so insistent they verge on the pummelling. Hit Parade is quirkier and murkier, leaning away from commercial pop towards something more experimental.
There’s lots of humour, some of it bleak. The Wicklow-born artist “coo coos” her way through the chorus of the 1970s-style 'CooCool' (which can’t decide whether it wishes to be entrancing or annoying). Meanwhile, the shadow of her trip-hop project Moloko hangs over 'Hurtz So Bad', a brooding epic and perhaps the best song here.
The tone shifts for 'The House', which opens with a sample of Tommy Tiernan’s bizarre interview with Murphy from 2020. “So what I know of ya, is you’re based in England,” says Tiernan before the track pirouettes into plaintive funk.
The controversy around the record has overshadowed it to the point where it’s hard to tell where the debate ends and the music begins. Listeners will have to decide for themselves whether they wish to engage with the LP (in the UK, it looks set to push Olivia Rodrigo for number one).
Should the dust ever settle, though, the slightly boring fact is that Hit Parade is thoroughly solid but in no way a work of unfettered genius. That’s fine: Murphy has already given us one of those.
