Grade: B

The rather wonderful, liberating thing about being a sentient human being, rather than a moron, is that one can agree with Roisin Murphy that giving kids puberty blockers is a kind of child abuse, while at the same time not liking her new album very much. Just as a sentient human being can enjoy watching Michael Sheen pretending to be other people quite well in films, while thinking him an egregious tit. The cancellation of Murphy was, of course, as obscene as it was predictable – but I do not quite swallow the idea that we are required, as a consequence, to buy Hit Parade.

The title is a bit of a misnomer: three or four decent songs does not, to my mind, constitute much of a parade. ‘CooCool’, the lead single, is as lovely a slice of electro-soul as you will hear these days and the shimmering reverb guitars on ‘The Universe’ provide a gentle thrill, sure. ‘Fader’ has a tune which lingers a little after its effects have dispersed and I can just about buy into the cute funk of ‘The House’. The ghosts of trip hop abound – as you would expect, given Murphy’s past in the electronic duo Moloko – while the German DJ Koze opens a mercifully sparse box of tricks, sparing the album the clutter that usually festoons this ubiquitous genre, leaving the songs to speak
for themselves.

Too often, though, they do not speak for themselves, or promise more than they deliver, as in the opener, ‘What Not To Do’. I hope she is able to continue performing without interference from the lunatics. But I don’t think I’ll be there to see her./>