Goldfrapp Unleash "Supernature"

With its infectious, fuzzy electro beats and the saucy, crystal-clear pipes of vocalist Alison Goldfrapp, Supernature quickly hit platinum status in their native England. Now the duo's third album will see its U.S. release, this Tuesday.

The initial buzz surrounding Supernature only escalated when a copy of the CD was found in the hands of one very high-profile fan, Madonna, who was spotted clutching a copy following a workout. "She's said a lot that she really loves the album," Goldfrapp says of the Material Girl. "I don't care what people do with [the album]. Music is a very personal thing. If they like it and they respond to it, then that's great."

Unable to write while on tour for their second album, Black Cherry, the duo -- a one-time collaborator of trip-hop pioneer Tricky and her production partner Will Gregory -- decamped to a remote cottage in Bath, England, in late 2004. "We [worked in] just a small house in the country overlooking some fields. It was very basic," Goldfrapp says of the birth of Supernature. "We quite like the relaxed atmosphere of renting a cheap house and just making it our own. And it's nice to be somewhere that's not too close to neighbors because then you can make some noise."

Goldfrapp and Gregory spent several months in the rented home, jamming during the daytime and composing cuts like the sultry, floaty electro-jam "Ride a White Horse" and the euphoric "Number 1." "When I was writing it," she says of the latter, "it was about saying how things can mean so much but don't necessarily last."

Goldfrapp will come to the U.S. for a pair of dates this month, on the 11th at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, and on the 16th at Austin's Austin Music Hall. For those live shows, the pair will expand to a quintet -- two keyboardists, a violinist, a bassist and Goldfrapp herself. But unlike fellow British dance music stars the Basement Jaxx, Goldfrapp warns not to expect a carnival.

"I heard rumors about me and a circus act," she says, "and there's nothing like that shit. We're just a good live band."

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

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