Offmessage

Why the hell am I so taken with Goldfrapp’s new album, Supernature? The formula seems to essentially be to cram as much eighties retro as you can onto a CD and overlay it with an awful lot of ‘la la la’ and ‘noo nee noo’ rather than words (the first track is entitled ‘Ooh La La’, for God’s sake); one track (Satin Chic) even manages to throw in a detuned mockney ‘roll-out-the-barrel’ style piano, while another (Number 1) seems to steal a synth line from Close Encounters. At that description (and it’s not a bad one, seriously) the album should be really appalling.

But. Oh but. There’s something absolutely mesmeric about this record. Her voice is reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins at their finest hour; FX laden as she is throughout most of the record her breathy delivery is hypnotising (made no worse by the nonsensical words). And rather than making the tracks sound crass the retro references and weird instrument choices make the record otherworldly instead. There is an instrumental sensibility at work here that is simply transporting, everything designed to slowly divorce you from the real world, wrap you in a warm, fuzzy and slightly disorientated feeling. When it’s driving it’s really driving, when it’s sexy (which it is most of the time) it’s really sexy, when it’s wistful it’s really wistful.

Black Cherry was a shagging album. Supernature is for those of us who’ve been with our partners for a while and are really getting into the groove… It appears that Goldfrapp, like sex and wine, gets better with age…

There’s only one fly in the ointment. They’re supporting Coldplay on the next tour. How can they? At least they have the opportunity to slap Chris Martin I guess, although for the purposes of their career it might be worth leaving that particular activity to the end of the tour rather than getting overexcited and doing it right at the start. Unless of course Gwyneth turns up. The chance to do them both at once would be too tempting, career or no.