Here is everything you need to know about the new Goldfrapp single, Rocket:
And here is a 30-second clip of the new Goldfrapp single, Rocket:
Things you will not experience via the medium of a 30-second preview clip: 1) Rocket sound effects 2) The opportunity to dance like a lunatic for 3’49” 3) More rocket sound effects 4) Alison doing a countdown – in the sense of a Space Shuttle Launch, not in the sense of Richard Whitely 5) Although that would be incredible, obviously
The full track was on Youtube earlier, but it has been removed by the record label. But, if you happen to live abroad, you can buy it right now (Australians click here and Germans click here).
Happy New Year! Here’s what happened on my stereo in the old one…
1) Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree Goldfrapp’s detour into folksy acoustic ballads may have lost them a few fans, but Seventh Tree is a near-perfect album – from the muted opening bars of Clowns to the hazy coda of Monster Love. One of my musical highlights of the year was simply lying back and listening to this album in the middle of a field in Devon – it’s truly the perfect soundtrack to a lazy rural day. As long, that is, as you ignore the (excellent) lyrics about brainwashing cults, suicide attempts and boob jobs.
2) Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke Maybe its down to the fact that she has Aspergers Syndrome, but New Zealander Pip Brown recreated the very best bits of 1980s synth-rock with unnerving precision on her debut album. On Oh My she sounds like Stevie Nicks, on Another Runaway she is Pat Benatar, on Better Than Sunday she channels Debbie Harry… it really is that good. Only one of the four singles (My Delirium) was a hit, struggling into the top 40 at the end of 2008, but this atmospheric, ballsy pop record deserved more recognition.
3) Lykke Li – Youth Novels Like fellow Swedish starlet Robyn in 2007, Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson rewrote the rules on what a pop album could sound like. Rather than slapping you about the face with a broken toilet seat going “this is catchy, goddamnit”, Youth Novels worked its way into your heart with a series of subtle, genteel ditties. Produced by Björn Yttling (of Peter, Bjorn & John) it is almost entirely acoustic, even down to the inventive, skittering drum lines composed from hand claps, wooden blocks and mallets. Lead single Little Bit was the most affecting love song of the year, while the driving I’m Good, I’m Gone paired sinister, percussive verses with a sweet release of a chorus. Don’t believe me? Listen to this acoustic perfomance of the song:
4) Elbow – Seldom Seen Kid Here are some adjectives that have been used to describe Elbow’s fourth album: stunning, lush, bittersweet, exquisite, epic, majestic, uplifting, poetic, impeccable, tender, wondrous, unbearably lovely. Get the picture? The Seldom Seen Kid is a modern masterpiece. It opens with Starlings – two minutes of hushed harmonies and muted marimbas that suddenly explodes into a cacophony of trumpets. It’s designed to make you sit up and pay attention to the following suite of lovingly-crafted ballads. Guy Garvey is unapologetically romantic throughout – “I was looking for someone to complete me. Not anymore, dear, everything has changed. You make the moon a mirrorball” is just one lyrical flourish in an album full of poetry. Simply perfect.
5) Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes Who’d have thought a beardy five-piece vocal harmony group from Seattle would produce one of the best albums of the year? Not me. But Fleet Foxes produced an instant classic with their debut CD – full of haunting choral lullabies, which took as their inspiration starlings, swallows, mountains, snow falls and river banks. The music owed a clear debt to the 1960s folk-rock of Simon and Garfunkel, or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – but its presence in the hustle, bustle and bombast of 2008 provided a reassuring oasis of serenity.
6) Duffy – Rockferry Possessor of the wildest vibrato since Snow White, Duffy owned 2008 – selling more than 4m records around the world by the simple act of combining Amy Winehouse with the girl next door. Her album is rather unfairly derided as boring in some quarters, but Rockferry is stuffed full of heart-rending ballads, seductive pop hooks and stirring choruses. As the Welsh 24-year-old’s confidence grew throughout the year, she transformed from a sweater-wearing wallflower into a slinky seductress pouring herself into Jessica Rabbit strapless dresses. Maybe she’s not just a cuddly Winehouse after all…
7) Camille – Music Hole Painstakingly constructed from samples and loops of her own voice, Camille’s album is probably the most audaciously ambitious record on this list. With the exception of a lone piano, every sound is produced by a human using one of their many “music holes”, according to the blurb. It could have been a tedious intellectual experiment, but France’s Camille Dalmais possesses a great big vat of soul – which lifts her songs above mere gimmickry. Highlights include the playful Gospel With No Lord, the (literally) barking Cats & Dogs, and the Mariah Carey-baiting single, Money Note. Mental in the good way.
8) Ting Tings – We Started Nothing The Ting Tings broke America when Shut Up And Let Me Go was chosen to soundtrack an iPod advert – but there couldn’t be a worse device to listen to their album on. Those massive drums and growling bass lines need a hefty pair of nerdtastic hi-fi speakers before they really come to life. The shouty party songs – We Walk, Great DJ, That’s Not My Name – are the best, but Katie’s sweetly melodic turns on Traffic Light and Be The One show that the band’s got more than one trick up it’s sleeve.
9) Girls Aloud – Out Of Control Out Of Control, or A Drop In Quality Control? Girls Aloud’s fifth album seemed a bit rushed – with precious little of Xenomania’s usual sonic invention and off-the-wall song structures. But there were still five or six stand-outs: The Pet Shop Boys-penned The Loving Kind is a four-minute slab of moody synth genius, while Miss You Bow Wow is the sort of deranged throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks pop gem that the band probably think they’ve outgrown. Not their finest hour, but still head and shoulders above anything else a mainstream pop act produced in 2008. Five heads and ten shoulders, to be precise.
10) Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini / Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night / MGMT – Oracular Spectacular / Santogold – Santogold Bloody hell, I can’t decide between these ones… Emiliana Torrini wins points for combining acoustic rock (like Sara Bareilles) and being utterly bonkers (like Bjork). MGMT did the student disco party anthems, with three absolutely stonking singles and a shockingly poor live act. Kings Of Leon were the only band who really rocked in 2008, while Santogold took MIA’s trademark soundclash and made it listenable. And I haven’t even mentioned Laura Marling, or Kanye West, or Vampire Weekend, or Q-Tip – it really was a vintage year, wasn’t it?
Postscript: Not albums of the year 1) Madonna – Hard Candy Madge opened a sweet shop but it only sold aniseed balls – hard and indigestible with a horrible aftertaste.
2) Various Artists – Mamma Mia! OST Abba karaoke. Literally my worst nightmare.
3) Britney Spears – Circus Is this really the best music money can buy? Cripes.
4) Portishead – Third When the end of the world comes, this will be the soundtrack.
5) Jonas Brothers – A Little Bit Longer Actually, I take that last comment back. This will be the soundtrack to armageddon.
Right, this’ll be the last post before I return from my Christmas hols in the magical Winter Wonderland that is Rochdale. Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for, particularly if you asked for the Ladyhawke album or a brand new Domino Rally set.
In the meantime, here’s some Christmassy and not-so-Christmassy reading material to tide you over.
:: The writers behind Mistletoe & Wine, Fairytale Of New York and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day reveal how the songs came about – and how much they get paid in royalties every year.
:: Meanwhile, The Guardian interviews a bunch of people who are mentioned in pop songs – including the man/woman who inspired Walk On The Wild Side and the record company executive namechecked in Enya’s Orinoco Flow (?!)
:: Just because The Killers film all of their videos in a desert, and Alexandra Burke’s budget only stretches as far as buying 50 candles from Poundstore, it doesn’t mean the music video is a creatively bankrupt medium. Here’s Spin Magazine’s list of the year’s best ones, which skillfully includes Bert and Ernie’s Ante Up lipdub.
:: Speaking of Alexandra Burke, her recording of Hallelujah is approximately the 1,298,388,515th version of the song. Test your knowledge of the others in a quiz I wrote last week.
:: Best bit telly from the last week – Tom Chambers and Camilla “dial her up” Dallerup performing a showdance to If My Friends Could See me Now, from the musical Sweet Charity, in the grand final of Strictly Come Dancing
:: Worst bit of telly from the last week – Girls Aloud slaughter The Loving Kind live on GMTV. Particularly noteworthy is Sarah’s bum note at 3:50. Even Cheryl cringes.
:: The Onion lists its worst films of 2008. Bizarrely, it doesn’t include The Love Guru.
:: Pedants unite – here’s a Wikipedia list of common misconceptions, which debunks so-called facts like “your hair and fingernails continue to grow after you die”, and “Gordon Brown says he’s a fan of the Arctic Monkeys” (he actually prefers Last Shadow Puppets, fact fans).
:: And, finally, the now-customary silly pet videos.
Hello! I’m back from my uncharacteristically sunny UK holiday now, but with another week off to bum around London watching Radiohead and Wimbledon. It’s a hard life.
Our week away was spent with 30 friends in a cottage hidden away amidst Devon’s deepest wilderness. We had huge, open skies; rolling fields of wheat and barley; deer, sheep, badgers and donkeys; streaming, weeping eyes from the pollen; and a blissed-out summer soundtrack courtesy of Goldfrapp’s Seventh Tree – an album that keeps getting better the sunnier it gets.
And, lo and behold, I return to the real world to find the video for their third single, Caravan Girl, winking at me coquettishly. It would be churlish of me not to put it right here in this space:
The last time Goldfrapp played live, their intro music was Cerrone’s 10-minute disco odyssey Supernature. Last night at the Royal Festival Hall, it was Greensleeves.
Yes, Alison and Will have gone all pastoral, as further evidenced by their band’s set-up, which included a harp, a 16-piece string ensemble and, by the end of the gig, six female choristers.
Dressed in white nightgowns (except Alison, in pink), the group concentrated mainly on the dreamy psychedelia of current album Seventh Tree and the more cinematic moments from debut release Felt Mountain. Utopia was an early highlight, with the string section lifting an already euphoric song into the stratosphere.
Similarly, You Never Know was particularly suited to the austere surroundings of the posh-nobs venue – with its staccato string stabs punching all the way to the back row like a fist in a velvet glove.
When they turned to the more upbeat numbers, though, Goldfrapp faltered. Bringing out the synths for the bouncy music-hall groove of Satin Chic, the sound balance was oddly uneven. The drums, in particular, sounded like they being played in a school practice room – making a band that’s renowned for its perfectionist soundscapes seem a little amateurish.
Fittingly for the surroundings, it was mostly a sit-down concert. Until, that is, we got the opening strains of Number One. At which point a lone man in the upper balcony was so moved by pulsing bassline that he left his chair to dance wildly in the aisles, half-finished pint in hand. A steward predictably tried to get him to sit down but was met with a disapproving chorus of booing. Then five supporters got up to show solidarity in dance. Then ten, then fifteen… The steward retreated, defeated.
“Don’t let them make you stop dancing,” said a clearly delighted Goldfrapp as the song ended, before launching into electro glam disco stomper Strict Machine, ensuring even more feet on the floor. It was a great moment – and one that clearly touched the singer, who had expressed concern that the audience wasn’t connecting with the music earlier in the show (“I can’t see anyone, I’m not used to people sitting down,” she complained)
The show drew to a close with two sonic experiments – Ooh La La as a hillbilly country song, which failed miserably, and a performance of Happiness with the entire audience humming along on kazoos, which was magnificent.
Despite a few minor mis-steps, then, it was a great gig. Alison Goldfrapp seems more comfortable as a frontwoman this time round, leading her band like a dreamy, ethereal pixie, rather than the sexualised disco vixen of the Supernature tour. And, with those sound issues sorted out, they’re going to be an amazing experience under the stars at this summer’s outdoor festivals.
Setlist Paper Bag A&E Utopia Cologne Cerrone Houdini You Never Know Road To Somewhere Eat Yourself Little Bird Satin Chic Number One Strict Machine Monster Love Caravan Girl Clowns Ooh La La (Hillbilly) Happiness (Kazoo) (via Goldfrapp messageboards – thanks)
The last time Goldfrapp played live, their intro music was Cerrone’s 10-minute disco odyssey Supernature. Last night at the Royal Festival Hall, it was Greensleeves.
Yes, Alison and Will have gone all pastoral, as further evidenced by their band’s set-up, which included a harp, a 16-piece string ensemble and, by the end of the gig, six female choristers.
Dressed in white nightgowns (except Alison, in pink), the group concentrated mainly on the dreamy psychedelia of current album Seventh Tree and the more cinematic moments from debut release Felt Mountain. Utopia was an early highlight, with the string section lifting an already euphoric song into the stratosphere.
Similarly, You Never Know was particularly suited to the austere surroundings of the posh-nobs venue – with its staccato string stabs punching all the way to the back row like a fist in a velvet glove.
When they turned to the more upbeat numbers, though, Goldfrapp faltered. Bringing out the synths for the bouncy music-hall groove of Satin Chic, the sound balance was oddly uneven. The drums, in particular, sounded like they being played in a school practice room – making a band that’s renowned for its perfectionist soundscapes seem a little amateurish.
Fittingly for the surroundings, it was mostly a sit-down concert. Until, that is, we got the opening strains of Number One. At which point a lone man in the upper balcony was so moved by pulsing bassline that he left his chair to dance wildly in the aisles, half-finished pint in hand. A steward predictably tried to get him to sit down but was met with a disapproving chorus of booing. Then five supporters got up to show solidarity in dance. Then ten, then fifteen… The steward retreated, defeated.
“Don’t let them make you stop dancing,” said a clearly delighted Goldfrapp as the song ended, before launching into electro glam disco stomper Strict Machine, ensuring even more feet on the floor. It was a great moment – and one that clearly touched the singer, who had expressed concern that the audience wasn’t connecting with the music earlier in the show (“I can’t see anyone, I’m not used to people sitting down,” she complained)
The show drew to a close with two sonic experiments – Ooh La La as a hillbilly country song, which failed miserably, and a performance of Happiness with the entire audience humming along on kazoos, which was magnificent.
Despite a few minor mis-steps, then, it was a great gig. Alison Goldfrapp seems more comfortable as a frontwoman this time round, leading her band like a dreamy, ethereal pixie, rather than the sexualised disco vixen of the Supernature tour. And, with those sound issues sorted out, they’re going to be an amazing experience under the stars at this summer’s outdoor festivals.
Setlist Paper Bag A&E Utopia Cologne Cerrone Houdini You Never Know Road To Somewhere Eat Yourself Little Bird Satin Chic Number One Strict Machine Monster Love Caravan Girl Clowns Ooh La La (Hillbilly) Happiness (Kazoo) (via Goldfrapp messageboards – thanks)
The last time Goldfrapp played live, their intro music was Cerrone’s 10-minute disco odyssey Supernature. Last night at the Royal Festival Hall, it was Greensleeves.
When they turned to the more upbeat numbers, though, Goldfrapp faltered. Bringing out the synths for the bouncy music-hall groove of Satin Chic, the sound balance was oddly uneven. The drums, in particular, sounded like they being played in a school practice room – making a band that’s renowned for its perfectionist soundscapes seem a little amateurish.
Temporary Fix 