With a crack backup band putting him through the paces, Salim Nourallah crafts an album with a unity of sound and vision that brings out the best in everyone involved. Featuring Buttercup's Joe Reyes on guitar, Polyphonic Spree's Jason Garner on bass, Shibboleth's Richard Martin on keyboards, and The Apples in Stereo's John Dufilho on drums, Hit Parade rocks with the precision of a band that could have existed for decades. The title track's brooding keyboards, the tight, punchy attack of "Unstoppable," and the rich power pop melodies of "The Quitter" and "Everybody Knows" (where elements of Big Star and The Kinks leak through) are testaments to Nourallah's talents as a writer and arranger of country-influenced pop songs. "Travolta" takes a playful dig at the fashion-challenged. "Goddamn Life" could be a Replacements tune, such is its weathered joy and perverse weariness. "Friends for Life" centers on a forlorn, fingerpicked acoustic guitar.