Goldfrapp
Seventh Tree (Mute)
ESSENTIAL "A & E"
There is an adjustment period of about 30 seconds necessary when listening to Goldfrapp's radically new musical incarnation. Expectations established over the duo's previous two discs of lusty, Giorgio Moroder-influenced dance-floor confections are promptly smashed like so many mirrored disco balls in the early 1980s.
To hear recent disco dominatrix Alison Goldfrapp discover her folk-loving, lady-of-the-canyon inner self is not an unpleasant stretch. The pastoral acoustic guitar of "Clowns" is the album's opening palate cleanser, a doorway into her garden of electro-folkie delights. Musically, Goldfrapp and Will Gregory give the illusion of lollygagging on a grassy hillside during a sun-dappled afternoon.
But lyrically these songs have teeth, taking on mental illness, loneliness, and, oddly, cults. "Seventh Tree" is a closer companion to Goldfrapp's ambient debut, "Felt Mountain," than recent offerings "Black Cherry" and "Super Nature." But even at the height of their trippy-hippie psych-pop moments, songs like "Little Bird," which feels like it was harvested from a strawberry field that sits under a sky with diamonds, remain concise pop gems.
What keeps "Seventh Tree" from lapsing into music for looming by is Goldfrapp and Gregory's inventive instrumentation, which harvests the warmth of electronic pop and marries it organically to acoustic instruments. The glow and warmth of these songs, particularly the bouncy "Caravan Girl" and the near-perfect first single, "A & E," further lend to the illusion that you've stumbled into someone's beautiful dream. [Christopher Muther]
