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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally a good mix of styles, 22 Jan 2008
Heard this thing as a download on a friend's IPOD. We ordered the hard copy as soon as we heard it. It's a good expanded style of songwriting that takes in "Felt Mountain" and their more glam experiments. Good work MUTE for leaking this ahead of its release to create a buzz for the album. To all record execs, learn from this.....a download is available, and we're still BUYING the CD. Is that clear enough for you?
Release better music and people will buy it; here endeth the lesson.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Beach Boys than Bolan..., 22 Feb 2008
This is about as far from the last album as you could musically get. More Ubernature than Supernature. Gone are the bleeps and squelchy crunches of that record. Indeed it's nearly 7 minutes in before we even hear any percussion. It's like Alison has walked out of TopShop and into The BodyShop.
But whatever colour a chameleon might turn, it's still a chameleon. There is no need for camouflage here though. It's still Goldfrapp.
This beautiful record is blissed-out, loved-up and sunny in a late summer afternoon but somehow melancholy way. In the age of individual downloads this stands as an example of how to actually sequence tracks. I can't imagine how you could better playlist these songs in a better order than they are presented here.
If you are a fan of Goldfrapp the duo rather than a fan of Goldfrapp the albums then this music might come as less of a shock. There are pointers throughout their earlier work to this as a possible direction. It shows considerable commercial bravery on their part to go this way, albeit they deserve to win over a whole new audience. Quite how the Supernature crowd who talk all the way through Deer Stop will cope with this music live will prove very interesting.
Other reviewers have gone into detail about individual songs, I just love the details in this initially simple-sounding record. Clearly, there are guitars but of the acoustic variety this time. I think there is even a 12-string on the closing passage of Eat Yourself, where you can practically hear the surf breaking on the fade. It reminds me of Bobby Goldsboro's Summer (The First Time). Cologne nods to ELO's One Summer Dream. Bit of theme here?! The strings are faultlessly arranged again and give a gorgeous, filmic backdrop to certain tracks. And there won't be many hits this year starting with a steel-strung harp like A&E does. On which, incidentally, Alison gives as good a vocal performance as you will hear from anyone, ever, anywhere. She is technically such an astonishing singer that it is easy to overlook just how fantastic an artist she really is. The glacial Metropolis perfection of the magnificent Utopia may have gone by but she gets better with every record...
When I first heard this album I didn't care if I ever heard it again. But in a time of instant gratification this is sometimes a good sign and I am so glad I did play it again. And again. It's interesting that it's coming out now in the winter because as other reviewers have alluded to, this feels like a warm, golden summer record. Going into autumn. The latest photographs catch the mood perfectly.
Is there anyone else out there apart from these two making adult music as good as this, music that is more than just pop?
I for one am continually glad that at least Goldfrapp do...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Feeling like I needed you, 25 Mar 2008
I confess, I'm still getting used to the glitzy, glammy sound Goldfrapp had in its last album. Now it has gone to the other extreme -- floaty, instrumental pop.
Fortunately it doesn't take long to get used to this new style, because it fits Goldfrapp like a fine silk glove.The dancy electrobeats are translated into shimmering downtempo, the hard edges softened into acoustics -- it's a floaty, dreamlike, bittersweetly beautiful little album, full of swirlingly addictive instrumentation and wistful vocals.
It opens with the mellow rippling guitar, overlaid with an ethereal fog of sorrowful violins, a touch of synth, clips of birds singing happily. "Only clowns would play with dull balloons," Alison Goldfrapp sings in a girlish slur. It's pretty hard to hear what's she singing ("Roasting, roasting, roast indeed, mahogany"), but the exquisite quality of the music makes up for it.
This is where you know it's all going to work.
And she doesn't disappoint in the songs after, startling with the quivering synth and satiny vocals of "Little Bird" ("We dance by the sea/the land of blue and gold/is where we were free/do you lie, lie lie?") and catchy, sunny "Happiness." And it sets the tone for some of the songs that follow -- exquisitely sensuous pop melodies, odd chorale ballads, dramatic electronica, and the sprightly dancy chamberpop of "Caravan Girl."
The highlight has to be "A&E," a warm fragile little melody spun that ripples with piano and soft keyboard. And as the melody picks up into a swirling instrumental speckled with electronic blips, the tone turns a bit darker. "I was trying to phone you when I'm crawling out the door.... I was feeling lonely, feeling blue/Feeling like I needed you/Like I've woken up surrounded by me/A&E..."
Most bands can't pull off a total change of sound -- they're going to disappoint a lot of, and often the quality of their music suffers because they're simply not used to this style. Fortunately Goldfrapp is not one of those bands -- it's hard to imagine anyone being turned off by the lush, bittersweet sound of this album.
The songs are spun out of a lot of acoustic instruments -- waves of elegant strings and a low-key piano, with some acoustic guitar and jazzy drums to keep the melodies grounded. But they haven't totally abandoned electronica -- there's a trip-hoppy downtempo flavour to these songs, mostly expressed in warm, misty synth that gently wraps around the chamberpop and folky melodies. But you do get some kooky catchy organ again toward the end.
And Alison Goldfrapp sounds like she's having fun. Her flexible, silky voice can become whatever the melody requires of her -- girly slurring, terrifying perkiness ("We're here to welcome you!"), an otherworldly balladeer -- but most of the time she sounds lovelorn and wistful.
And while the music may be more accessible, the songs she sings are flavoured with depression, moments stolen with a lover you'll never really have, and even drug overdoses ("It's a blue, bright blue Saturday, hey hey/And the pain has started to slip away/I'm in a backless dress on a pastel ward that's shining/Think I want you still/But it may be pills at work").
Goldfrapp have really outdone themselves in the shimmering, exquisite "Seventh Tree," a sharp deviation from their previous music. Utterly spellbinding from beginning to end.
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~ Goldfrapp
![A and E [Cd2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416Ursh1QZL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ Goldfrapp
~ Portishead
![Goldfrapp - Wonderful Electric - Live in London [DVD] [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41N2QBE519L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Seventh Tree [CD+DVD Set]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dgpZ7G6jL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
