On Goldfrapp’s forthcoming fourth full-length album Seventh Tree, the duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory move away from the cold glam of 2005’s Supernature for a more lush, softer sound. Swift genre shifts have become second nature to Goldfrapp, whether it was moving from their ambient debut, 2000’s Felt Mountain to the electroclash of 2003’s Black Cherry. “We’re always searching for different ways to express ourselves. You want to feel like you’re moving on and doing new things,” Alison Goldfrapp tells Rock Daily. “If you keep hanging on to a formula you found, life gets boring pretty bloody quickly.”
From the first note on Seventh Tree opener “Clowns,” it’s clear there’s nothing bloody boring about the duo’s new album. The song trickles in with the gentle plucking of an acoustic guitar (it’s the first time the pair have used the instrument), before Alison’s cooing vocals enter. Soon, walls of strings swell as the group conjures up picturesque images of their native Bath, England, where they record all their albums. “We did want to have a warmer sound, but a warmer sound that didn’t sound too pretty, so that was something we concentrated on quite a bit,” Goldfrapp says.
To accompany the warmer sound, the duo also wrote their most personal batch of lyrics yet. The end result is a cinematic experience, especially on first single “A&E,” which examines “a very desperate situation in a very humorous way.” “A&E,” by the way, does not stand for “Arts & Entertainment” (like the TV channel); Goldfrapp explains it means “Accident & Emergency.” As for the album’s title, Goldfrapp says, “I had a dream about a very large tree. There was beautiful sunshine, and the tree was waving in the wind and said it should be called it the ‘Seventh Tree.’ And you can’t argue with a dream.” Seventh Tree is out February 26th, and Goldfrapp have “a short tour of the U.S. in the spring and a much longer tour in the autumn” on tap.
[Photo: Getty]
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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