Time for a guessing game. Which of the following is not a review of Seventh Tree, the long-awaited album from glam-electro outfit Goldfrapp (pictured)?
a) “A sensual counterpoint to the glitterball glamour of Supernature... gilded in the butterfly colours of an English surrealism shared from Lear to Lennon. It shimmers and shines with the warmth of a hazy summer, an electric whirlpool over which Alison’s glistening voice soars.” Goldfrapp’s MySpace site.
b) “Languorous, woozy, breathless... it’s a post-coital album.” The Guardian.
c) “Nirvana meets George Formby,” The Telegraph.
...And finally, round two. Which of the following have Goldfrapp not said about the making of their genre-bending opus?
a) “Music-making to us is all about stepping out of your comfort zone and working hard in the wilderness.”
b) “It had to have an effect like music in spaghetti westerns, like when a child gets shot in the head and suddenly there’s a major chord. It had to combine beauty and darkness.”
c) “It was drinks, it was parties, it was shaving foam everywhere, it was madness!”
While I await your answers on a postcard, (only joking), I will confirm that the band, who once cited Serge Gainsbourg and The Wicker Man as influences, have not lightened up with their latest album. But despite their pretensions, it’s a rollicking good listen, if a little folkier than previous efforts.
