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Goldfrapp
Black Cherry
label:
mute / a.d.a.
released: 06.05.03
our score: 3.5 out of 5.0
buy it: here
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Felt Mountain
had more peaks and troughs than the Alpine scenery on its’
cover. That first album from Goldfrapp, back in 2000, had three
or four stand-out tracks that made it worth its’ weight in
gold. But those fragile beauties were packed in the bubble-wrap
of also-ran album fillers that slipped my mind within minutes.
Unfortunately, the same can be Goldfrapp’s follow-up long-player,
Black Cherry. Although
a lot of Black Cherry is very tasty, there is a lot of
nonsense on here that leaves a bitter aftertaste.
The pick of
the pops on Black Cherry is the fantastic new single, "Train",
which starts off with a fantastic Soft Cell-type 80s disco beat
and never ceases to blast your ears with brilliance until it fades
away. Other memorable moments from Goldfrapp this time around
include the title track itself, and the very “poppy”
"Twist". Mention also has to be made of the superb "Slippage",
a great slow-but-steady finale to Black Cherry that plods
a way into your subconscious with sounds of screaming and moaning.
But
on the way to "Slippage", Black Cherry stops
at "Tiptoe", "Hairy Trees" and "Deep
Honey", places that I would not recommend you spend much
time at.
The musical
duo that makes up Goldfrapp, that being Alison Goldfrapp and Will
Gregory, have spent the last 12 months putting together Black
Cherry. Like Felt Mountain, which sported the whistling
classic "Lovely Head", there are tracks that become
well known because of their instrumental appeal to the TV advertising
gurus. "Train" and "Slippage" could well be
among them. But after the low-key success of Felt Mountain,
I wanted something more from Goldfrapp this time around. They
proved they could not only be good, but among the best when it
came down to creating atmospheric, addictive pieces of music.
Perhaps greedily, I wanted an album of wall-to-wall perfection,
because that’s what I thought Goldfrapp followers deserved.
Instead, I have an album with four or five gems and a whole load
of padding. An album where too much time has gone into creating
weird wolf images on the cover and not enough into engineering
perfect pop. A shame, but not one without beauty.
07-Apr-2003
2:05 AM
If you
liked Black Cherry...
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| Tracklist:
1.
Cystalline Green
2. Train
3. Black Cherry
4. Tiptoe
5. Deep Honey
6. Hairy Trees
7. Twist
8. Strict Machine
9. Forever
10. Slippage
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