Goldfrapp: Tales of Us
Goldfrapp
Tales of Us
(Mute Artists Ltd)
“Jo†drones to open the new Goldfrapp album, Tales Of Us, with it’s slightly menacing electric/piano boiling in the background, a float-y, nearly unintelligible Alison Goldfrapp vocal pushed forward by a mandolin-like upfront “rattling.” Pretty, picked acoustic guitars from Will Gregory move the decidedly sad “Annabel†and “Drew†with this second tune, the best of the earlier of the ten songs here I feel, complete with singalong “la la la’s†and an almost western movie theme ending.
Lush strings and spacey synths with a low cello plucking and piano open “Alvar†and swirl into high strings and pretty much a full orchestrated tune seeing her rolling her vocals around. I like the gated guitars and “chh-chink†back beat that begin the true best mover here, “Thea.†A full production accomplishing the best of what the band is after with Tales, I believe.
“Simone†has a nice use of horns and Gregory alive again on perfectly plucked acoustics. He’s truly adept on “Stranger†(“strange” that this song is the only one not named after a person). Goldfrapp is very pretty-perfect here on another full string treatment that sounds like it could be played over the credits of a spaghetti western (it might be the whistling and the “ooh’s”).
I like Alison singing in her lower register over the simple piano of “Laurel†(I tend to toward Julie Cruise if I want that airy, pretty, warble voice) though I feel the strings distract in this instance. The last tune here, “Clay,†is masterful, again the full realization with percussion, low strings, wonderfully evocative lyrics and Gregory’s guitars.