That is some sort of sound machine that becomes a…visual euphemism. Sometimes.
“Lend me a whole new world
All night, feel life, oh, oh
When is there ever sense
To love, this world, oh, oh
In the whirlpool, we’ll go deeper
In this world that’s getting cheaper
I wanna ride on a white horse
I want to ride on a white horse”
- “Ride a White Horse” by Goldfrapp, off the album Supernature
This is a live version of the extended version of the song, and it’s not great quality, but I wanted y’all to see the horse head girls in action.
Oh, hey, look, it’s Will!
The nature/clown theme of Seventh Tree was quite the departure from Supernature.
“Floating in the magic world
Donate all your money we’ll
Make it better (make it better)
(We’re here to welcome you)
We can see your troubled soul
Give us all your money we’ll
Make it better (make it better)
(We’re here to welcome you)
Time stops still when
You’ve lost love”
- “Happiness” by Goldfrapp, off the album Seventh Tree
Did I mention that, in addition to the girls with sparkly horse heads, there also used to be girls dressed as wolves?
Mad, but it worked. Felt Mountain has an eerie widescreen, cinematic feel to it. This is partly because it was recorded outside, under the stars, and partly because the feeling of “total loneliness where something horrible is happening” reignited fears from her childhood. In fact, her childhood appears all over the album: twitching curtains, slaughter in the countryside, hints of disturbance. “It’s sort of beautifully macabre,” she muses. “I love all that David Lynch, Midwich Cuckoos thing. But it isn’t cinema. It’s real.”
Goldfrapp the band occupy unique territory between mischief and danger, blurring fantasy and reality, though their “coffee-table” appeal is undeniable. Alison’s lyrics are mostly abstract obsessional tales, using cut-up surrealist techniques. With Will’s blessing, she designs their artwork - spooky little birds and limbs in the grass. Felt Mountain’s sleeve depicts her head doubled, like a freak show, but also a vagina (“a computer accident, honestly, but I kept it”). She confesses to an “unhealthy” inter est in voyeurism but insists that the notorious publicity photo of her playing piano in her undergarments (taken, importantly, by her friend Anna) was partly triggered by poverty. “After six months in the bungalow, I didn’t have any nice clothes. My trousers looked like shit. So I took them off!”
“It starts in my belly
Then up to my heart
Into my mouth, I can’t keep it shut
Do you recognise, the smell
Is that how you tell us apart
I fool myself to sleep and dream
Nobody’s here
No-one but me
So cool
You’re hardly there
Why can’t this, be killing you”
- “Lovely Head” by Goldfrapp, off the album Felt Mountain
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