The Observer Wrote:
Goldfrapp, Supernature
***** Eccentric female stars are thin on the ground these days. Hurrah, then, for Britain's own twisted sister, gushes Polly Vernon
Sunday July 17, 2005
Now is not a great time to be British, a woman, and a pop star. Female Brit purveyors of popular music are required to fill one of three moulds to secure themselves any kind of success. They can either: doll themselves up in seven shades of slapper, get themselves some Cathy Dennis songs, an energetic catalogue of dance routines and a hard-nosed management company, and venture forth in homage to Rachel Stevens. Or they can doll themselves up in seven shades of slapper, affiliate their mediocre vocals and their well-bronzed abs to a faceless DJ of the 'Sammy' variety, and shoot a video on an Ibizan shore line. Or - if they're brunette, take themselves a touch seriously musically and are determined to piss me, personally, off - they can acquire an acoustic guitar, some whimsy, some mindless rhetoric as lyrics, and launch themselves as the latest spawn of Dido/ Melua/ Norah Jones.
Happily, there are a few, glimmering, exceptions - Brit birds who do their own thing with unapologetic flair, eccentric lyrics, outspoken abandon and a pioneering wardrobe. Birds like Moloko's Roisin Murphy, Garbage's Shirley Manson, and Goldfrapp's Alison Goldfrapp - the last of whom is about to release Supernature, her third album in collaboration with band mate, co-writer and producer, Will Gregory.
I have scrambled onto the Goldfrapp bandwagon late, having missed 2003's Brit-nominated Black Cherry, but I don't see why that should prevent me from championing the band at large, and Alison in particular, as though I had discovered them and A&R'd them myself with my own bare hands.
Supernature is a triumph; a combination of electronics and decadence, soaring, sneering vocals and high drama, which references pretty much every glamorous, dark, witty, twisted bit of pop produced over the last 20 years. The first song - and first single release - 'Ooh La La', is Kylie at the top of her game, with touches of Debbie Harry and Roisin Murphy. 'Lovely 2 C U' harnesses the jaded sexiness of the Human League and my favourite ever Girls Aloud song, 'Some Kind of Miracle'. 'Satin Chic' sounds like something Toyah might have co-written with Vicky Pollard. But despite all these allusions, the sound, and sensibility, is still very much Goldfrapp's own.
If I were a pop star, I'd be Alison Goldfrapp. She has enormous wit, she's dead cool, she wears killer frocks. There are very few women who can get away with a) naming their band after themselves, and b) describing their own creation in these gloriously pretentious terms: '[Supernature] is an über world of sound and hybrid creatures. It's a place to take part in fortnightly disco séances, where people dance with spirits and howl like beasts of the forest wearing lycra and stilettoes.' Alison can, and I like her more for it.
Burn it: 'Ride a White Horse'; 'Lovely 2C U'; 'Fly Me Away'
eter, aka 
usty 
halk
