Róisín Murphy delivers a career-best with her kaleidoscopic sixth album

And so here it is - one of the most anticipated records of the year and also one of the most controversial. Hit Parade has arrived freighted with bad vibes, bitter recrimination and maybe even a sense of betrayal for some fans of Róisín Murphy, the musical shapeshifter from Arklow.

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The new album - and let's be clear from the off, it’s her best yet - has been overshadowed by the outcry over comments she made about puberty blockers on her private Facebook page. This review isn’t here to rehearse what Murphy said, and she has since issued an apology, stating that she was "stepping out of line" and "will now bow out of this conversation within the public domain".

However, the damage was already done. Two of her upcoming London concerts have been cancelled and her new label, gainfully hip London imprint Ninja Tune, has decided to go into containment mode and not promote Hit Parade.

Naturally, the singer’s views have been weaponised by both sides of the debate - her LGBTQ fanbase, who regard Murphy as an icon, have been left reeling (and with a very bitter aftertaste), while the hashtag #IstandwithRóisínMurphy began trending during the week.

It won’t have been the first or (happily) the last time an artist has had an opinion on a contentious and highly emotive issue (Sinéad O’Connor springs to mind for some reason).

However, it has left Murphy, a single-minded maverick who has always championed diversity and individuality, wounded in the crossfire of the culture wars. Hit Parade is now in danger of becoming a mere emblem of whatever "side" of the debate you might stand on.

That would be a major shame because Hit Parade is a pure joy. Concocted over six years with "elusive German bangermeister" DJ Koze, it’s an elevating and transportive album that takes the Irish dance deity to the very outer reaches of weird.

A woman of many faces and many voices, Murphy’s elastic approach to music has always been about endless possibilities and whether she’s lost in fluttering dance pop on CooCool (a breezy Mimi Ripperton meets Isaac Hayes vibe) or going under on icy Kate Bush familiar Eureka, Hit Parade always sounds alive to the future.

Murphy’s nigh-on legendary vocal prowess has never been better. She can sound like Macy Gray on standout track Fader or Milly Jackson melded with the sinister hauteur of Grace Jones on impressionistic opener What Not To Do - the message being, tell someone what not to do and they’ll go right ahead and do it, one way or another.

The vocals and the ringing guitar chords on The Universe are sublime. As is the weird machine pop of Hurtz So Bad and here’s also a WTF moment on The House. A loose funk workout, it samples dialogue from Murphy’s 2020 appearance on The Tommy Tiernan Show. Later, on the same song, she’s on an agitated phone conversation about being locked into her own gaff.

It’s that kind of record.

Mad Professor gatecrashes the party again on You Knew, a seven-minute house track that will give music fans of a certain vintage a major attack of the Prousties – as well as a setlist staple for DJs of any age. The same might go for Can't Replicate. It doesn’t hang about and goes straight into Leftfield eco-ambience and stars Murphy’s breathiest vocals since Moloko wore tight sweaters.

Like a diary of the making of a great record, these 13 tracks are intercut with plenty of mixtape skits, like snippets of her answering machine messages to Koze, audio from her TikTok videos and a running gag of Murphy imitating an idiot Instafluencer complaining about bad service on holiday (Crazy Ants Reprise is a hoot). There’s even an appearance from Murphy’s son Tadhg Properzi on Spacetime.

Hit Parade is a lot of love and a lot of fun and whether you #standwithroisinmurphy or not, it would be a shame not to dance with her.

Alan Corr @CorrAlan2