Former Lesbian Alison Goldfrapp Goes It Alone

First real taste of the new album, new track "So Hard So Hot".

She's bi, not a former lesbian.

R2 - I know. It's just a little joke.

I guess this isn't a music video, but a "video vignette"? Okay. She looks fabulous, though.

[quote]So Hard So Hot by Alison Goldfrapp. Video vignette by Alison & Mat Maitland at Big Active. The first in a series of visual accompaniments to tracks from the upcoming album ‘The Love Invention’ (out 12 May). These video vignettes (looped into the full length visualizer you see here) have been treated with a range of AI techniques to create extreme fluctuations on a spectrum that glides towards radical fantasy.

Is form a lesbian like build a bear?

I love that.

I'm going to make mine lipstick on the top and butch on the bottom.

Fab, R4!

I hated Strict Machine with a passion.

I like a fair bit of Goldfrapp, particularly Seventh Tree. I generally prefer her/their more acoustic, mellow stuff to the synth pop, so I’m not really feeling her new music. Alison often comes across as a little unlikable in interviews, but at least she doesn’t put on airs and graces.

r7 - she definitely was uncomfortable in interviews in the earlier days -- especially when Supernature exploded and took their success to another level. She seems to have mellowed in middle age and seems quite warm and lovely in interviews in recent years.

Apparently, this will be a dance heavy album. From her IG....

[quote]I’m so happy to finally announce that my debut solo album 'The Love Invention' will be out on 12th May 💚. This is my tribute to the dance floor and it's been so liberating to make. On this album you’ll be able to hear the originals of the teasers that have already been released…plus many more including my first single ‘SO HARD SO HOT’ which is available now !!!! I can’t wait for you to hear 🖤

I don't love the album cover (in the link.) Feel like that the imagery (and she herself) look much better in the video at R3.

Who is this Róisín Murphy wannabe?

Always have got her mixed up with Frou Frou.

Goldfrapp is someone to whose music I wish I enjoyed listening more. It just feels like work.

R9 - It is QUITE Roisin. But Alison's distinctive voice is instantly recognizable to me. Honestly, a Roisin + Alison collab could be interesting!

[R7] How was she unlikable in her earlier years?

I only really know her from singing on so many Orbital songs.

This is a better track, presumably also on her new album.

R14 - that one's nice, too. It's actually a remix. She's had some unexpected release strategy in which she's released a few remixes of a couple of album tracks *before* we've heard the original album tracks. Curious what the original Fever sounds like.

Not sure about the new song. Well produced, but it's a bit flat.

[quote]I like a fair bit of Goldfrapp, particularly Seventh Tree.

I loved everything by Goldfrapp until Seventh Tree. And my boyfriend at the time hated everything she put out. Until Seventh Tree.

So I left him, kept the house, the car and the cat.

LOL R17!! I've always liked both sides of the Goldfrapp 'coin', the more pastoral / orchestral of Felt Mountain, Seventh Tree and Tales of Us as well as the dirty, electro/disco of Black Cherry, Supernature and Silver Tree.

According to Popbitch, sound engineers in the West Country used to ask 'how difficult were they - on a scale of zero to Goldfrapp'?

This is the only one I've liked in toto.

R19 - I've heard that one, too. My impression is she's mellowed in her older age. I do recall that virtually every time I saw Goldfrapp in concert Alison was regularly fiddling with her ear piece and gesturing to the sound people to turn one thing or another up or down.

Love her artistry and aesthetics.

New one. Fab!

Album is out. Seems to be getting strong reviews. I haven't had a chance to digest it yet, but kind of digging the Italo disco weirdness of this one...

R9 Goldfrapp has been around forever.....but I thought the same thing when I heard some of these songs.

It's a surprisingly good album.

Listening to it now on Spotify. An ok club album, some catchy tracks. Feels a little flat compared to the lush, diverse compositions with Will Gregory. I hope they will team up again in the future.

The new album cover - not digging it. Neon grim reaper?

If I was Roisin Murphy I would sue.

It sounds nothing like Roisin Murphy.

I get the Roisin comparisons, but they're pretty lazy. It's not like Alison is some interloper out of nowhere. Goldfrapp (the band) always pivoted between more pastoral, lush, orchestral music and trip-hop and outright dance and electronica. And Alison has always been stylish, glamorous and a little left-of-center weird. And, they're both going in apparently very different directions on their new albums -- Alison fully into dance and electro and from the couple of tracks we've heard, Roisin into a surprisingly breezy, almost 60s sound. There's room for more than one of them. Must say, the gays are having a feast this year with new albums from Kylie, Roisin, Alison, Jessie... probably others I'm forgetting!

It's not the music so much as it's how Alison is styled for this, the art, etc. It really really heavily borrows from the look Roisin has had for quite a few years.

I dunno, I'm not sure I've seen these AI-integrated style "video vignettes" as Alison and her team are calling them elsewhere.

Roisin made some really fabulous self-directed videos in her Hairless Toys and Take Her Up To Monto era, but none of her videos since then have been as strong. Luckily, the music from Roisin has remained absolutely stellar.

Been a huge Goldfrapp fan since Supernature. And I have loved both their mellow, more acoustic albums, as well as their “dancier” ones. I even enjoyed the much maligned Head First. My absolute favourite remains Tales Of Us though. I also loved Ocean, the lead single from Silver Eye, esp its version with Dave Gahan. Absolute genius: Goldfrapp + Depeche Mode. I’m pretty excited about this release. Bring it on.

All right, I’ve just given The Love Invention a spin, and it’s Goldfrapp through and through. In fact many songs reminded me of Head First, which I find interesting because Alison never hid her dislike of that album which the record company forced on them. Anyway it’s good, but hoping for another collaboration with Will in the near future.

She’s ex-gay?

Had no idea we had a Róisín Murphy troll here on DL and I kinda love that for us.

[quote]My absolute favourite remains Tales Of Us though.

Same. It's the only Goldfrapp album I enjoy, with Drew being my favourite song on it.

R35 - it's just a joke. She's bi. She's in a relationship with a man right now. She was previously in a longterm relationship with a woman, filmmaker Lisa Gunning, who actually directed all of the Tales of Us videos

she is 57 today

[quote]... and from the couple of tracks we've heard, Roisin into a surprisingly breezy, almost 60s sound.

Yeah, Jessie Ware's latest album veers in that direction too, more of a showgirl style. No complaints, mind you, for either of these ladies.

And I do like Alison's album in a "music to clean your apartment to" kind of way.

Goldfrapp albums, as much as I liked them, always came across as intellectualized exercises in style and sound. This album, where she lets her hair down and steps on the dancefloor without anything too deep about the whole affair is exactly what I needed this summer.

R39 - I don't think Jessie's new album sounds 60s at all. It has some pretty clear reference points from 70s and 80s hybrids of disco/funk/soul. Perhaps you're referring to it having a more... organic style... which is true.

Are any London gays going to her show this week??

Alison in Puss Puss Magazine

Will Kylie's new album be disco, again? Maybe finally we could have 4 or 5 new disco albums to get us through this summer. Jessie and Alison are great, so far. Where is Róisín Murphy? Too bad Madame X is wasting years being an artiste.

R44 - Kylie's new album is reportedly a little sharper, sexier and grown up than the last DISCO album. At least that's the early word. Roisin is going in a different, though lovely direction. More here...

Album debuted at #6 in the UK. Quite good for her solo debut on an indie label. Her highest charting albums (with Will) were Supernature and Seventh Tree, both reaching #2. Wonder if she'll make it onto any of the Billboard charts like the Dance/Electronic or Indie ones. Unfortunately, I think you have to have a BillboardPro account to see any of the specialty charts.

Apparently, some of the songs are about menopause and hormone replacement therapy. Who knew menopause could be so danceable?

I've listened a few times. It's shimmery and glam, and I like the long Moroder breaks. Being so languid I would prefer it to have some harder beats and some more "tunes" or "songs" holding some of these tracks together. It's lounge/party music, finally, with hints of unrealised dance floor burners.

Pitchfork compares two of the mid-tempo tracks favourably to Carly Rae Jepsen. Well I adore early Carly Rae Jepsen but I wonder how Miss Goldfrapp takes that compliment.

Pearls on Jessie's album has structure - thanks Stuart Price! Still my own taste wants committed club music so I'm thankful for Goldfrapp trying to go there. Songs that call for great club remixes: Love Invention, Fever, Gatto Gelato (Moroder!), So Hot So Hard.

I don't know what work she's done, but it's subtle and she looks bloody fantastic for someone who's just a couple of years away from 60.

Then we'll party like it's 2009.

Absolutely love the new album - great to workout too as well as being quite good background fuck music.

I love most of Goldfrapp's music (and Roisin Murphy's, and I don't get the comparison) but I'm not really feeling any of these solo songs. They're fairly flat in production. Roisin's last few albums have had much more interesting beats on them (but I'm not loving the new direction for her, either.)

Last year, Alison did a track with Royksopp called Impossible, it was easily better than any of these new songs.

Profound Mysteries triple release is much better and my favourite of 2022.

V Mag profile

Vogue, too...

It sounds exactly like a Goldfrapp album.

They kind of dropped the ball with “Head First”.

Their first 4 albums are brilliant. But they ran out of ideas.

New single. Or maybe they're not all singles. I never know how that's defined these days. But new AI video thingy. This song is gorgeous... one of the more romantic songs in Alison's catalog. It's almost like a more mature sister to the lovely teenage romance sound of 'Head First'.

On Later with Jools...

second song...

Loving Alison in this Alexandre Vauthier look

“The Love Reinvention”remix album has been out for a few weeks. I love it.

She looks like she lives in a dumpster.

r63 - think I prefer the originals. The album's so dancey already it wasn't screaming for remixes, to me, but I understand these are "more than" just remixes, so, more power to her.

R65 If I had to choose, I prefer the originals too. I am partial thought to a remix/reinvention like Róisín Murphy’s Crooked Machine remix album of Róisin Machine. Seems to be becoming a trend to make one.