Goldfrapp
Album: The Singles
Label: Astrelwerks
Tracks: 14
Website: www.goldfrapp.com

Right, let's be having you… anyone got a problem with pop music? Yes, me too, but perhaps we get the pop music we deserve. Look, here come Goldfrapp with a bag of singles for our aural pleasure!

Now, I'm sure Alison Goldfrapp and her partner-in-chime Will Gregory are perfectly pleasant people and very kind to their nans, but dishing up a mess of other people's ideas and smothering it in a gravy of glam beats and 80 synth fizzes isn't clever, or funny - although it is quite popular.

Stonking great chart hits like Ooh La La, Rocket, Black Cherry, Believer and Ride a White Horse are right at home soundtracking nights out at the local drinking barn and nights in with co-workers. All draw on familiar blends of Fleetwood Mac, ELO, Glitter Band, Human League, Xenomania etc. That's fine, but listening to this set of 45s the realisation dawns that Goldfrapp could have been a lot more interesting. Early pickings such as Lovely Head and Utopia (both from their debut Felt Mountain) flirt with Gainsbourg-style Franco-pop, trip hop and DIY garage dance - a product of Alison's time in the company of Tricky and Orbital.

Then, in 2008, Goldfrapp went all folktronic with Seventh Tree (A&E and Happiness are included here), yielding to their more literate influences and delivering music that melded the pastoral with the pop and got us all hopeful. It didn't sell so it was back to the hot pants and 80s glitter stomp for the follow up Head First.

Ah well, pick your favourites and make your own compilation - maybe this is why they invented home taping, I mean iTunes…

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk