Róisín Murphy's Hit Parade is shaping up to be a serious AOTY contender, with singles "CooCool" and "The Universe" refracting Murphy's husky dance-diva persona through a kaleidoscope of warm, ramshackle production from DJ Koze.
Today, we get another reason to be excited about the album with "Fader," another gorgeous single that finds Murphy surfing atop a wash of samples, strings and bouncing baubles of percussion. The song comes attached to a joyful video self-directed by Murphy in her hometown of Arklow, featuring local Irish dancers, majorettes, Girl Guides, Boy Scouts and a brass band, plus Murphy's family and friends dancing through the streets in a parade.
In a statement, Murphy said the black-and-white video was inspired by '90s hip-hop videos and was a concerted attempt to do something different from the wacked-out art direction that accompanies Hit Parade:
This idea came to me partly in reaction to making such surreal and 'other' imagery for the album artwork, and partly in response to the track itself. I felt I needed a totally authentic space in which to perform "Fader." The song is about life & death & music and so I went home to where it all started for me.
Just as in the music there's a huge hip-hop influence on the video and for me to have the sheer front for that, it needed to ring true and so my hometown, Arklow was in fact, the only option. It was a huge task to take on, connecting with local government counsellors because we had to close the high street and then, with local groups of all kinds, musicians, dancers, scouts, majorettes, farmers, fishermen etc. and much of my family... doing something like this is a massive responsibility and it threatened to overwhelm me at times. But on the day we had Hollywood sunshine and just an incredible sense of goodwill. The people of Arklow made me so proud. It truly turned out to be one of best days of life…
Hit Parade is arriving September 8 on Ninja Tune. Check out the "Fader" video below.
Today, we get another reason to be excited about the album with "Fader," another gorgeous single that finds Murphy surfing atop a wash of samples, strings and bouncing baubles of percussion. The song comes attached to a joyful video self-directed by Murphy in her hometown of Arklow, featuring local Irish dancers, majorettes, Girl Guides, Boy Scouts and a brass band, plus Murphy's family and friends dancing through the streets in a parade.
In a statement, Murphy said the black-and-white video was inspired by '90s hip-hop videos and was a concerted attempt to do something different from the wacked-out art direction that accompanies Hit Parade:
This idea came to me partly in reaction to making such surreal and 'other' imagery for the album artwork, and partly in response to the track itself. I felt I needed a totally authentic space in which to perform "Fader." The song is about life & death & music and so I went home to where it all started for me.
Just as in the music there's a huge hip-hop influence on the video and for me to have the sheer front for that, it needed to ring true and so my hometown, Arklow was in fact, the only option. It was a huge task to take on, connecting with local government counsellors because we had to close the high street and then, with local groups of all kinds, musicians, dancers, scouts, majorettes, farmers, fishermen etc. and much of my family... doing something like this is a massive responsibility and it threatened to overwhelm me at times. But on the day we had Hollywood sunshine and just an incredible sense of goodwill. The people of Arklow made me so proud. It truly turned out to be one of best days of life…
Hit Parade is arriving September 8 on Ninja Tune. Check out the "Fader" video below.
