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Oh Alison Goldfrapp, how do I love you? You debuted with something that could only be described as Weimar-era orchestral indie-electro-pop, then you went on to swallow up influences like Roxy Music, David Bowie and Blondie to unleash disco-glam rock ready burners like “Train” and “Ooh La La.” All the while you reinvented your look and sound with the kind of élan only seen in Madonna or, the icon of icons, Debbie Harry. Seventh Tree adds shades of pastoral concept album-era Kinks and Magical Mystery Tour to your indie-electronica pop. Supernature is still my favorite album, but this is a close second. Equally lush and inventive, an album of mostly ballads that doesn’t put me to sleep or sound likes the soundtrack to some kind of hipster dinner-party. It also includes a few of their best songs.
Album opener “Clowns” is a strong contender for their best ever ballad. Vocally she is unintelligible, but emotionally she is right on target. What is the song about? I’m not entirely sure. Perhaps about being true to yourself and going against that is to make you look and act like a clown? That is the emotion I get from the song. Equally lush are “Little Birds” which expands her Kate Bush fetish with touches of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” first single “A&E” for which the word hypnotic is not descriptive enough for, “Cologne Cerrone Houdini” in which she does her best Marlene Dietrich impression since the Felt Mountain cover (or is she trying to be Nico?) and “Happiness” which is as close to the electro bump & grind we’ve come to expect on this album.
But what is the best song on the entire album? The upbeat disco-meets-folk pop of “Caravan Girl.” What kind of pop music is this exactly? I’m not entirely sure. I hear strands of the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society, the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” and the bewitching vocals and chirpy synths of ABBA. If this song alone doesn’t qualify Goldfrapp for some kind of weird art-dance-rock, I don’t know what else will.
Goldfrapp have released four albums, each with a different sound and character. How many bands are currently doing that so steadily? Many artists promise true change and a new sonic landscape to get lost in, but deliver these promises only with the first single and release something awfully similar to their previous albums. Goldfrapp don’t want to drag you down into an underground S&M club anymore. They want to dress in soft, flowy outfits and frolic quietly in a watercolor field of grass and flowers. I loved joining them. DOWNLOAD: “Caravan Girl”
