Goldfrapp;
Take A Sip
Melissa Gandarinho
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"A surreal wide-screen tango overflowing with mad love, loneliness and tech-noir future shock premonition. Utterly sincere, timeless music, simultaneously ravishingly beautiful, haunting and sinister." According to Goldfrapp.com, this is what you experience when you listen to the eclectic sounds of Goldfrapp.
Although very hush-hush in the United States, this twosome is a big British pop hit. The band consists of Alison Goldfrapp as a composer, vocalist, whistler, yodeler, keyboardist, and Will Gregory as the composer, keyboardist, and string and brass arranger. At first, the twosome isn't what you would imagine as pop singers. In the music industry here, pop music seems to be anything commercial and very happy. Although Goldfrapp's music is not what you would call a club hit, the lyrics and beats make you frown upon the radio.
"Having established a strong alliance with Mute, Goldfrapp and Gregory focused their considerable individual talents upon forging an utterly distinctive and passionate vision of 21st Century popular music," as stated on the website. When they first came out in 2000 with the album Felt Mountain, it included seven songs, one called "Utopia" in which you can interpret as the album being a 'Utopia' for Goldfrapp.
There second album, Black Cherry (2003) again had no more than nine songs. Goldfrapp always tries to give you more with less. By not giving you so much to listen, you get the chance to really listen to each individual song. Three years after this album came Supernature in 2006, which gave the listeners more songs. This time around they included twelve songs on the album, and it has started to become more popular with their music. "Supernature is the rarest of records - one which arrives late in the life span of a genre but defines it so completely and perfectly that a full stop can be placed right there. Nu-disco perfection, pretty much," as stated on launch.yahoo.com.
Popular music is what they aim for and with three albums, their latest album being Seventh Tree, is what you would call an array of amazing songs all over again. They have defined popular music that has been pursued by artists such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue and even The Bravery who all make it to the charts, while Goldfrapp still remains unknown. This time around with their new album, many believe that this will define them and their music and finally introduce them to the big music industry.
With most albums, the repetition of sounds becomes annoying. Goldfrapp's voice is calming and subtle. Being under the label Mute, you might as well consider this music as being a whisper in your ear. Her voice gives you chills, and makes you listen to the very inspiring and carefully written lyrics.
"We create our own, personalized environment," says Alison Goldfrapp. "And it's more how bands or duos used to do it in the 70s or 80s, your own music, art directing your own sleeves, wearing your own clothes, which is unique compared to a lot of bands. Now, you might get people writing their own music, if that. And they'll have a whole entourage creating all the other stuff. I like being part of that scene, the people who've created everything themselves."
Clowns, one of the songs on the new album, is one which you can barely understand the words being sung. What makes this song so touching is the beat. It starts of slow and then you reach a point where you feel emotional. The first time being heard will seem like a roller coaster ride. You start off slow, you begin to reach the top and when you end the ride, you're slowly regaining your breath once again. The song takes you on a journey while saying the same four lines over and over again throughout the song.
From the new album, the best song would have to be Little Bird. "She's like a little bird, she flies from 'a' to 'b', to see what she can see. She's far away from me. We danced on the moon, we danced by the sea, that land of blue gold is where we were free." Goldfrapp then sings the word July like in a lullaby. The music takes you through the flight and in the end, you're free.
Unlike most love songs, Goldfrapp takes a different direction in explaining love. Eat Yourself explains "If you don't eat yourself no doubt the pain will instead." It has the line that everyone can relate to "cause I love you so, when I know you don't love me." And then it finishes, the song with what we all begin to question when we are in a relationship or what we may want to call a relationship, "who will I be when I'm with you again?" It explains love and relationships to the tip. It's not everyday day you get a song as relatable as this one.
This album isn't the kind of album you need to listen to when you're studying or depressed, or anything like that. This is simply an album people need to listen to. It's not about who is singing, if they are well known, or what their intentions are; it's what you get out of listening to the song. Listening to Goldfrapp is an experience people need to have. If you're willing to give Goldfrapp a try, listen to Little Bird from the new album Seventh Tree and go back to their old stuff and listen to the more upbeat material such as Black Cherry.
Giving new music a try is something everyone should do once in a while, and Goldfrapp is worth those two minutes you have instead of checking your Facebook. Check them out on Goldfrapp.com or even visit their MySpace page at myspace.com/goldfrapp.
2008 Woodie Awards

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