Where did it all go so wrong for Goldfrapp? It certainly
had started with a (rather quiet, yet impressive) bang
at the turn of the millennium with the haunting Felt
Mountain. After years spent providing eerie
backing vocals on other people’s music, including
the likes of Tricky or Orbital
no less, Alison Goldfrapp found with Will Gregory the
ideal partner in crime, and the result was a superb
collection of wonderful ethereal pop songs draped in
swathes of synthetic waves and layers of pastoral string
works, which earned the pair comparison to anything
from John Barry and Ennio Morricone to Potishead and
the Cocteau Twins.
Black Cherry,
published almost three and a half years later, took
these sumptuous soundscapes and emotional tones and
dropped them in a pool of electricity, sending choc
waves through every last layer of the pair’s original
sound. Suddenly, Morricone found himself playing strip
poker with Gorgio Morroder. Where electro-clash had
tried so hard and failed, Goldfrapp effortlessly wiped
the dancefloor.
The arrival of Ooh La La, earlier this summer,
amidst the usual August inertia, was just what the doctor
ordered. A good dose of glam a-la-Bolan, a backdrop
that had everything of a slightly more mature Black
Cherry, a rather euphoric and sexy video…
and then Supernature! Ms Goldfrapp looking
all Dietrich-like on the cover, retro-futuristic typography,
and songs that appear forged from a similar mould to
those featured on Black
Cherry.
The album kicks off in style with Ooh La La,
and Lovely 2 C U, a piece every bit as sexy
and catchy as Train or Twist. There
are here some equally as beautiful emotional moments,
on You Never Know or the stunning Let It
Take You or Time Out From The World. Here,
the Goldfrapp of Felt
Mountain shows its lovely head again, all clouded
eyes and butterflies in the stomach. Elsewhere, the
Non-stop Erotic Cabaret show is in full swing, spitting
out a series of greasy stompers in the shape of Slide
In, Koko or Satin Chic, the latter
complete with twenties-sounding piano and martial groove.
Yet, once the album concludes, it leaves very little
behind. A bit like trains journeys where various landscapes
fly past without making any impression. Supernature
is all form and rather little content. Beautifully packaged,
it does everything one would expect a Goldfrapp record
to do. And that is the ultimate problem here. Felt
Mountain just landed, promising nothing and
delivering all. Black
Cherry promised much, and delivered… only
to a different address. Supernature just goes
around looking for somewhere to go and gives up all
too quickly. It will surely have the masses enchanted,
and let’s face it, it is STILL way better than
your average pop records. Yet, in an age where the Sugababes/Rachel
Stevens (or their managment/producers at least) of this
world has assimilated electro and regurgitates it by
the mile, Goldfrapp were expected to deliver something
more exiting, robust and clever. A missed opportunity
at the very least.
3.1/5 |
