Of course my watch is slow, the album has been out for ages and has already been faintly damned in the other place.

But I found myself to listening to A+E and it is wonderful in every way. Just look at the words:

"It's a blue, bright blue Saturday, hey hey
And the pain's starting to slip away, hey hey

I'm in a backless dress on a pastel ward that's shining

Think I want you still
But there may be pills at work"

I still haven't warmed to the album as a whole, but you are right that A&E is magnificent. Definitely one of the singles of the year.

I really like the Hercules & Love Affair mix too, though it loses the lightness of touch that is key to the original working so well.

Here's what we had to say on the old board - although in true OTF fashion, it gets derailed by the second page.

If the album has a real problem, it's that it doesn't take the woozy, blurred, hauntological thing far enough. The first two tracks nail it exactly - 'Clowns' with its bleary, indecipherable vocals and 'Little Bird' with its nursery rhyme lyrics and impeccable "July, ly, ly" refrain - but after that, it descends into a series of vaguely woolen strum-alongs, more 'Handful of Songs' than 'Picture Box'.

I can't see anything usurping this as my album of the year.

Bloody hell.

I found it unlistenable beyond the first two plays (and one of those was for professional purposes).

The videos for both singles have been a real disappointment, too. They had those wonderful sun-kissed, summer evening (or was it a winter morning?) promotional pictures taken, which really reinforced the band's new direction; then, for the videos, they went horribly cute and came up with efforts that would have suited Bjork circa 1995 but didn't compliment the mood at all.

But still, fair do's to them for having a stab at something different and a bit off-kilter.

That's a shame; the promo shots were fantastic. They really, as you say, announced the new sound.

Give it another listen, SR. It's tune after tune. (I can't be bothered rereading the old thread but I thought you were just initially disappointed that it no longer sounded like T Rex.)

The Horse wrote:

QUOTE:
That's a shame; the promo shots were fantastic. They really, as you say, announced the new sound.

Give it another listen, SR. It's tune after tune. (I can't be bothered rereading the old thread but I thought you were just initially disappointed that it no longer sounded like T Rex.)

They never sounded like T. Rex in the first place, but yes, I was initially disappointed that they no longer sounded like Gary Glitter gone electro. However, having listened to the whole album again, I then became disappointed that they did sound like a slightly alternative version of fucking Dido.

Just out of interest, SR, what did you think of Felt Mountain?

QUOTE:
However, having listened to the whole album again, I then became disappointed that they did sound like a slightly alternative version of fucking Dido.

Crikey. Dido? That's just mental.

Crusoe wrote:

QUOTE:
Just out of interest, SR, what did you think of Felt Mountain?

Loved it.

The Horse wrote:

QUOTE:

QUOTE:
However, having listened to the whole album again, I then became disappointed that they did sound like a slightly alternative version of fucking Dido.

Crikey. Dido? That's just mental.

No it isn't. It's the same kind of nonmusic that Dido makes. 'Music' that is hardly even there. Just because it comes with the coolness of the Goldfrapp brand, and the goodwill Goldfrapp have built up, it shouldn't blind people to that truth.

I just don't understand. It's tune after tune after tune and, as the opening post demonstrates, has nothing in common with the likes of Dido lyrically. It certainly has a babyish, toybox quality to it, but that just makes it more intoxicating, especially when its creepier side emerges. It's a bit reminiscent of Joanna Newsom in that respect, although what I keep thinking of is that 70s film where Michelle Dotrice goes on a cycling holiday in dead-quiet rural France and gets attacked by the sinister locals. (And Soon the Darkness, it's called. Check it out.) It's really sexy as well, but it's a fluttering white cotton skirt now, instead of a rubber mini.

I mean, what else is nonmusic? Nick Drake? Fairport Convention? Elliott Smith? I can't see what you mean at all.

As must surely be apparent by now, I'm totally unconcerned by coolness or previous goodwill. I didn't particularly like Goldfrapp's previous two albums, for a start. Competent dressing-up-box homages aimed at people who will lap up absolutely anything that sounds a bit glammy.

SR's "Music that is hardly even there" comment puzzles me, too. Are there not enough notes? Is it that the production is so stripped down? Is it just because it's so quiet? I mean, taking volume out of the equation, you coiuld argue that the drums & guitar sound of The White Stripes is 'non-music'.

The Horse wrote:

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I didn't particularly like Goldfrapp's previous two albums, for a start. Competent dressing-up-box homages aimed at people who will lap up absolutely anything that sounds a bit glammy.

Ouch...

OK, listen, I'm slightly exaggerating how much I dislike the new album. After all, I gave it a 3/5 review in the end, and I do appreciate what you call the "toybox quality".

But it's definitely a let-down, and I'm kind of amazed that anyone else didn't consider it a let-down when they heard it, if they're honest with themselves, and didn't try to force themselves to like it because it's Goldfrapp and to not like it would be evidence of philistinism. (Doesn't apply to you, I guess, if you didn't like Goldfrapp to begin with, but to anyone who did, I can't believe they didn't get the same sinking feeling I did.)

With your list of Nick Drake, Fairport Convention and Elliott Smith, you're doing what