Seventh Tree

Product Information

Nothing if not pragmatic, Gryphon's members re-emerged as the Banned, purveyors of punk-friendly garage rock. At its best-- the desolation of "Cologne Cerrone Houdini" and "Some People", which inject the ambience with a much-needed eeriness-- this stuff's fairly soothing; at its worst it evokes that old "Mystery Science Theater 3000" bit about the two-note chords of New Age music: "Put your finger down here. Bassist Jon Davie adopted the nom de punk John Thomas; whatever you think of their opportunism, you can't fault the dedication of a man so keen to keep his career alive he was willing to name himself after a euphemism for the penis.

Seventh Tree became Goldfrapp's second release to chart on the Billboard 200 in the United States, [27] where it debuted at number 48 with first-week sales of 15,000 copies.I passed over it after the first few listens but as the immediacy of the more accessible songs begins to wane, I find myself listening more and more to this one and the other inbetween songs such as `Monster Love' and `Cologne Cerrone Houdini'. It's a blissed out trippy LP of dreamy songs to listen to on the beach or floating on a boat down the river while smoking a doobie and watching the clouds in the sky drift by.

postcards containing unseen photos included alternate shot of the owlman, and Allison standing in a cute polka dot uniform alongside a horse behind a tree. Musicalement, l'alliance entre les lignes instrumentales et la voix si pure de la chanteuse nous fait voyager.It shimmers and shines with the warmth of a hazy summer, an electric whirlpool of sound over which Alison's glistening voice soars. This is not Goldfrapp Unplugged, although acoustic guitars and strings waft in and out of the album effortlessly - if anything, Seventh Tree's electro hippie-chic is the duo's most polished and luxe work yet. As you might expect from a woman who chose to illustrate her conjunction of electronic music and eroticism by playing a synthesiser with her private parts, Seventh Tree is not overly coyin signposting its new approach. Opener, Clowns, captures both the eerie stillness and magic of nature, which counterpoints the subject matter of breast implants and surveillance magnificently.

Avoiding the glammy dance-pop of the duo's previous two albums is a bit of a risk, since Goldfrapp could probably make endless variations on Ooh La La and still have plenty of fans. So it's more esoteric than Felt Mountain (and that's just my opinion, just so ya know cause I love that CD too for it has it's own special mystery). The acoustic guitar is sensational and Allison's voice (espcially her high-pitched cooing at the end) is euphoric, like I just went out on a date with a girl I never met before absorbing this song. Not many of us could spend the best part of two years perving around to retro-futuristic electro kink-pop with horseheads in killer heels.It was unprecedented enough that a group which started out trafficking in cabaret eeriness and cinematic grandiosity would ease so naturally into club-pop, so it's not out of the question that dialing back to pastoral, folksy indie-electronica would unearth another side of a duo that was shaping up to be one of the decade's most versatile.

In practise, this means much of Seventh Tree goes where earlier Gainsbourg disciples such as Air have gone before: chilled-out, soporific electronica with a light organic edge.

Road to Somewhere and Some People veer close to bucolic easy listening: they're a bit middle of the public bridleway. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. You'd be better served playing who-did-it best, and what's striking about Seventh Tree is how deftly it manipulates well-worn ideas. Alison Goldfrapp described the album as a 'sensual counterpoint to the glitterball glamour of 'Supernature'', their previous studio album from 2005. The gatefold sleeve (not sure if the original pressing had a gatefold), is nice quality, rather than feeling like a pale imitation of the original design, which sometimes happens with reissues, both i terms of artwork and card quality, and with a very nice "wide-spine".