If you’ve wasted time at work reading music press recently, you’re no doubt aware that Goldfrapp’s latest represents a substantial departure from Black Cherry and Supernature. But is Seventh Tree really that radical a shift?
For the most part, it sounds like a thoroughly improved, tightened re-do of their debut, Felt Mountain, a largely confused, messy mash-up of Portishead, David Arnold, The Notwist and the Wizard Of Oz soundtrack.
MP3: Goldfrapp - “Deer Stop” (from Felt Mountain, 2000).
With Seventh Tree, the dated production of Felt Mountain is thankfully replaced with slow, chartreuse river strings borrowed from Kate Bush or Nick Drake:
MP3: Kate Bush - “The Man With The Child In His Eyes” (from The Kick Inside, 1978).
MP3: Nick Drake - “Way To Blue” (from Five Leaves Left, 1969).
MP3: Goldfrapp - “Clowns” (from Seventh Tree, 2008).
Seventh Tree is a lovely record, perfect for an autumn Sunday picnic. And it is admirable to see a band move so emphatically from one sound to another from record to record (take note Strokes, 50 Cent, Kaiser Chiefs, et al). The vocals are as ethereal and beautiful as ever, and the strings stir like branches in a meadow. Sometimes, like on the first half of A&E, we even get a return to the straight-up pop of Goldfrapp’s earlier work (minus a big beat, of course).
But it’s tough to shake the feeling that Seventh Tree is largely a genre exercise — a love note written in fine script that doesn’t say all that much. It’s difficult not to yearn for that electrified whip strut that Alison Goldfrapp executed so perfectly:
MP3: Goldfrapp - “Strict Machine” (from Black Cherry, 2003).
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