Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
Sheesh, this just isn’t very good. I loved Felt Mountain and I really liked Black Cherry. By the time Supernature came around I was, I must confess, losing interest in the glam disco Minx persona, so I was really excited to hear that this record was to be a shift of pace towards a dreamier, more folky sound.
In practise it just isn’t very successful. Some of the tracks are terrific – Little Bird is really nice, and Eat Yourself is pretty good – but there are times when ‘dreamy’ drifts listlessly into ‘middle class dinner party’ and this, ultimately, is where the album rather disappointingly settles. It has been described as a Return to Felt Mountain, but it is far less spookily atmospheric than that rather excellent record. I described it on a podcast recently as being more than just a little bit like Texas in parts, I stand by that and it is most positively not a compliment.
So whilst there are moments where you are carried away to the dreamy world of faeries and slightly macabre old folk tales, there are rather unfortunately far more times when you are carried away to a tawdry boutique full of pointless lady tat and a soundtrack designed to evoke evenings in with the girls drinking Aussie Chardonnay and lighting candles for ambience. This is shopping music.
Goldfrapp – Little Bird This one’s rather nice…
Goldfrapp – Caravan Girl …but this is woeful.
Hate to be the first to post a response but I’ve been waiting for this review
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I 100% concur.
I think this is designed to create a middle ground between the critical & the commericial successes of the first & interim albums. The whole ‘going back to the stripped bare’ blather frothed by the A&R team is just another *yawn* attempt at drawing in those who lost interest as soon as she went Hi-Tempo ABBA.
The whole ‘banning’ of any blogs sharing tracks pre-release (just so they can have their exclusice myspace slot) is a symptom, I’d say cynically, of knowing this is a very weak album.
You’re right, there are pretty moments, & some bits soar beyond expectation. But, Felt Mountain this absolutely most definitely aint.
Lady tat, indeed.
Did they ban blogs from sharing, pre-release? I just do that as a matter of course so no-one puts the shits up my web host. It is tedious though.
bollocks, i may be alone here but i’m actually enjoying this.
the texas comment (rather uncharitable i feel) made me choke on my post-work / pre-dinner cocopops.
then again maybe i’ve listened to too much metal this weekend.
…..
nope.
still like it.
Heh heh. There are certainly bits I really enjoy, but as an album I don’t hear much of the folk they were described as aiming for, if I’m honest.
Since the cd doesn’t come out where I am until tomorrow I haven’t heard too many tracks. I’ve only heard “Happines” and “A & E” I really like both tracks, especially the “A & E” remixes. This is definitely different from what I’ve heard from Goldfrapp but she’s super talented, so I think its ok to change it up a bit. I don’t mind these tracks either, we’ll see if these tracks grow on me too.
JT
Yes, I definitely think it’s good that’s she’s trying new things – just unfortunate that in this case I don’t like the results all that much. But I’d take a misguided experiment over stagnation any day.
i totally agree, this is so dissappointing. i can’t believe a lot of the reviews are comparing it to Felt Mountain, which is absolutely gorgeous. This sounds like Delta Goodrem or whatever her name is (even worse than Texas!). Felt Mountain was spooky, atmospheric, cinematic and strange. Seventh Tree is bland and sounds cheap. its like someone with no talent who likes bad music trying to sound like Goldfrapp.
Toad, not sure what they are doing now but up until the Myspace ‘exclusive’ airing went live they were systematically hitting every blog & politely (i.e. laced with a legal follow-up threat) requesting they remove downloadable tracks (notably “A&E” – probably the single, then) from their reviews/sites.
As for the album, I stand by my thoughts. I have heard it a number of times now (on-line & in the flesh, as t’were) & I just don’t thin it’s an album worthy of so much hype & expectation. The pretty numbers are spoiled somewhat by elaborately devised over-produced under-production & the midnight ocean tide wash of the lullaby moments gets on my tits. Electronica Enya, anyone?
Funny, too, as Hope just texted asking if I wanted a copy (she still gets TWR promo stuff sent to her) to play ‘exclusively’ in full before anyoe else on the show. Do I arse. Sorry, it just isn’t that interesting.
It’s interesting JT likes the remixes. A lot of blogs have been posting the remixes (which have then been ‘removed’ by request) – is that because these were the only ones available at the time or were they chosen because they were preferable to the original? If the latter, which I think is probably the case, then doesn’t that say somethig about the production/writing team that outsiders are making a better hash of it than the in-house crew?
In my opinion, which is just an opinion, I think that this is like complaining because you got into Stanford but not M.I.T… This is still quality fukkn music… even if you don’t like the new ‘happy’ sound (which I kinda do), it’s still better than 95–>% of the music of this genre. Of course Caravan Girl is shudder inducing, but thats because it sounds like an Elton John ballad… which… um… ok, you got me on that song. Still, musicians that don’t take chances are left behind in an era of unsatisfiable youth… damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I’d rather see mistakes made than stagnation.
giddeup.
Ah, see I partly agree with you. Nothing is worse than just reproducing the same old shite time after time, so I really do reckon it’s good that she’s done this instead of just more disco floor fillers.
That said, I just don’t like enough of the album to really enjoy it that much. You’re right in that it’s unfair to judge the whole thing by Caravan Girl, but I hear more of Caravan Girl in the album as a whole than I would like to.
There are definitely some dead good songs though.
after the pitchfork…
so, u like that site
this is no fair
this is no good
I don’t read Pitchfork, but I wholeheartedly agree with that review, apart from not hating Caravan Girl, which I think is dreadful. Her voice has indeed been a little bit neutralised – there’s no real character to the singing on most of this album.
i must rate very low on the totem pole, as i’ve had a&e up for several days–pre-release, mind you–and the web sheriff hasn’t come a knockin’. *sniff sniff*
but i really love that song. i can’t get it out of my head. i rather liked that little bird track you had on the podcast, too, so i think i might shell out the bucks for this anyway.
unless someone wants to ship me their unwanted promo disc, that is!
Mine’s already been used as a wallpaper scraper, sorry.
Oh dear.
I find I really rather like Caravan Girl.
I caught a live-ish (i.e. in a TV studio; but most, if not all, of it was definitely being played by warm-blooded mammals there and then.) version on telly the other night and it seemed to have more balls than this album version. Which did help.
You and Pitchfork, Dylan, you and Pitchfork.
Marcy – I think a lot of the mp3 police pack it in once the album is really close to release, on the assumption that the album is going to be out there anyway and it’s a waste of their time to try and hold back the tide. I was a bit nervous about getting a take-down myself, but no sign so far.
I think it’s probably worth mentioning at this juncture that, no matter how bland the new album is, Alison Goldfrapp is still unfeasibly hot.
I particularly like the ’sultry Napoleon’ vibe she’s got going on here.
Thank you and good night.
Whereas I think she looks like someone being told what to wear & hasn’t a clue what she’s actually wearing. It’s all a little Faerie / pseudo ethereal bollocks for me. Perosnally i think she looks clumpy & awkward – that’s live & in photos. The best ones of her were of the Felt Mountain period when she was being natural & unfussed & under-manipulated.
That said, the level of her shagability should never get in the way of shit muisc.
Shopping music, man that’s rough. Of course that means they’ll probably make a whole ton of money from it, but not from me.
Yeah a little bit mean perhaps.
But then, no lesser a person than Tom Waits has spoken very favourably of shopping music in the past…
not to change the subject, but did i read somewhere that scarlett johansson is going to do a tom waits covers album? could this possibly be true? and what will that mean for shopping music and shagability?? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,221001,00.html
I am, as we speak, listening to this album in full for the first time, having heard only various tracks in isolation up until now…and blimey it’s dull! As you know Toad, I’m often the fan of warbly bints, but this just has snooze written all over it! It’s not entirely awful…there are some pleasant moments…it’s even a bit Anne Briggs-y in places…but it’s a struggle getting through the whole thing to the end and even remembering anything about the ones I thought I liked as I continue to listen! Guh!
Marcy, Scarlett is indeed doing a Tom Waits album and, despite her marvellous breasts, I can manage no more than complete indifference to this project. Many people cover Tom Waits songs, few people do it well. If Scarlett does an earth-shattering job I will be amazed, but I’ll certainly applaud her.
Divinyl, see – rubbish! Told you so! Boring boring boring boring. No spunk, no spirit, no spark. No point listening and certainly no point shelling out.
Marcy, you just linked to Fox News. Pull yourself together. You do realise that the reason Fox News only broadcast in America is because they do not pass the basic requirement of communicating facts that is required to qualify describing yourself as a news organisation in the rest of the world?
yeah, i thought the fox news angle kind of added to the “jaysus fucking christ” aspect of the news.
i thought you’d be more, i don’t know, offended by this tidbit? being the tom waits fan that you are.
I don’t resent other people doing Tom Waits covers, partly because there are so many it would be hard to keep up with who to hate. Even Rod Stewart’s are so bad they’re actually quite funny. The only problem with singing his songs is that it’s impossible to do them as well as the man himself, so she can sing her heart out but it’s a bit of a futile exercise.
Who, ultimately, gives a shit about Scarlett singing Tom Waits songs, unless she’s doing it in the nude whilst being dildoed from behind by Jessica Alba. Then I might pay a little more attention.
I heard that was the concept for the first video.
(by “heard”, I mean “dreamt”.)
Can I take it that the fact that this comment thread has gone so woefully astray is a damning indictment of the overwhelming dullness of this album?
The mooted Johansson Waits album has been talked about for well over a year now — there’s a ton of net chatter about it since it was first ’suggested’ way back at the tail end of ‘06/early ‘07. There was a lot of excitement across the TW blogs in September ‘07 about an October release, & again in October about a November release. Who knows if it will actually happen. Will it be any good? Probably not, because it is Johansson (essentially a flake) – but, I bet there will be at least one track all the poo pooers will go ooh, wow to.
As for Toad’s extraordinary vision of SJ being dildoed from behind by Jessica Alba, what is it with the attraction of this woman? She looks like a galago (bush baby) holding in a particularly thorn-impacted shit. Similarly, Jessica Alba looks like she’s been inflated with a bicycle pump & comes with a tin of vaseline. Clearly, both of them do fuck all for me in the trouser department.
Poof.
Do we know anything of Ms. Johanssen’s particular attraction to Tom Waits? Or is it simply another vanity project diguised as an actress spreading her artistic wings?
Minnie Driver, anyone?
(By the way – why am I getting random line breaks in my comments?)
No idea.
As to Scarlett, I have no idea. Basically scores and scores of people love Tom Waits so I guess if you think you can sing, there’s a depressing inevitability about this kind of thing. So, erm, yes. My guess is vanity project.
Or an attempt at borrowing some much needed credibility. Meow.