Alison
Goldfrapp's voice was near ubiqitous in the late 90s and early 2000s, yet it
was more the singles that drove my knowledge of her. I was expecting a slightly
samey, Portishead-light album, without a lot of variety.
It turns
out my instincts were pretty much spot on. The vocals are excellent,
unsurprisingly, although they sometimes lapse into being slightly breathy.
There are some strong moments on the album, such as Human, where the
electronica and strings interplay nicely, and Pilots has the sense of being
wrapped in a cashmere blanket, and left to float over a moonlit lagoon. Those
slight outliers however, are just the better versions of a similar theme -
slow, stripped back beats, with tinny yet mellow percussion, and languid
strings. Many of the songs merge into each other, and are frankly forgettable
even after multiple listens. Deer Stop and Horse Tears, for example, sound like
every single perfume advert soundtrack you've ever heard.
I'm not a
huge Trip-hop fan, if this even falls in this category, and I struggle to
really see why someone would say this album stands out against others of the
same genre. Yes, Goldfrapp's voice is good, but it's not exactly
genre-defining, or even defying, and the other musical elements seem to lack
something that sets them apart - it just feels a bit 'by-numbers'.
Chloe's
album rating: 4
Chloe's
favourite track:
Olly's
album rating: 4
Olly's
favourite track: 8. Utopia
Next week
we have 670. I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Sinead O'Connor.
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