Hit Parade (Róisín Murphy album)

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 she had signed to Ninja Tune. Murphy will play select shows in North America following the album's release.

The album received acclaim from critics, with some calling it her best work yet and one of the best records of the year. Several critics acknowledged and felt that Murphy's August 2023 leaked private Facebook comment about puberty blockers and young trans people had negatively affected the preceding "goodwill" toward the album. Hit Parade became Murphy's highest charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking in the top five, and debuted in the top ten in Germany as well as the top twenty in Belgium, Ireland and Switzerland.

Background and recording
In a statement, Murphy expressed that the music was worked on remotely, with her in London and DJ Koze in Hamburg, over the course of several years, and "both [were] in a personal, private place when working on the songs", which "brought out a more intimate approach to the songwriting" for Murphy and allowed her to tell "this album [her] secrets", and Koze had "total freedom" and was not "distracted by [her] presence". She called the resulting album "joyful" as she has "never been happier", and the music "so vibrant and alive" and "exploding with colour".

Murphy was photographed by Connor Egan, who they collaborated together with Beth Frey on the colourful artwork, with Bráulio Amado serving as graphic designer.

Critical reception
Hit Parade received a score of 87 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 13 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Sophia McDonald of Clash called it "as colourful and playful as Róisín Murphy herself. Truly a contender for album of the year, Murphy has created an album of true musical depth that doesn't take itself too seriously", and Uncut stated, "bursting with warmth and character even when nearly tweaked beyond the point of recognition, Murphy's voice has rarely had a more satisfying showcase".

Mojo called the track "Fader" evidence "that [Murphy] could do out-and-out pop if the mood were ever to take her, but there are too many strange and good ideas for anything quite so prosaic". Peter Piatkowski, reviewing the album for PopMatters, wrote that "there are some great moments on the record, but overall, Hit Parade is a bit inconsistent; its title is false advertising. It's a frustratingly uneven album, with just enough genius to make the mediocrity on some tracks stand out".

Reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Harry Tafoya described it as "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." Pitchfork also granted the album's first two singles, "CooCool" and "The Universe", Best New Track status. Jordan Bassett of NME summarised it as "a playful record imbued with a sense of mystery and occasional glimpses of autobiography, slowly revealing itself as the cracked mirror image of Róisín Machine's bruised optimism."

Shaad D'Souza of The Saturday Paper wrote that "for Róisín Murphy, becoming the world's most fabulous and daringly experimental living pop star has taken a long time", calling the album "a masterclass in unfussy pop – her best record yet and maybe the album of the year".

Track listing
Notes
 * "Spacetime" is a separate, unmixed track on the digital edition, whereas it is mixed as an intro to "Fader" on all physical editions. The deluxe vinyl version includes an additional song, "Milf Funk" (5:10) between "The Universe" and "Hurtz So Bad".
 * "CooCool" contains a sample of "Together" by Mike James Kirkland.
 * "Fader" contains a sample of "Window Shopping" by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
 * "Can't Replicate" contains a sample of "Sæglópur" by Sigur Rós.
 * The physical CD/LP version available from Rough Trade includes a bonus disc featuring a live performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

Personnel

 * Róisín Murphy – vocals
 * DJ Koze – production (all tracks), mixing (tracks 1, 2, 4–11, 13)
 * Deinklang – mastering
 * Philipp Hoppen – mixing (3, 12)
 * Tadhg Properzi – guest vocals (6)