Album Review: Alison Goldfrapp – Flux
3 min read
I first saw Alison Goldfrapp perform Utopia on ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ back in the early 2000s—her operatic voice soaring above a lush electronic soundscape left a lasting impression on me. Since then, I’ve been a huge admirer of her work. With Flux, released on her own label A.G. Records, Alison steps out with her second true solo album (so no Will Gregory synths again) after The Love Invention broke her run of decades at the forefront of electronic music with the band Goldfrapp, feeling like a natural evolution for an artist who has always blurred the lines between operatic, electronic and analogue music – and I was more than eager to sit down and see where Alison has taken herself on her most recent leg of her musical journey. Let’s dive right in….
Kicking off with the latest release, Hey Hi Hello is a light poppy track, with breezy, energy-infusing 80’s-style synths with Alison’s fantastic vocal range (though aficionados will know this is nowhere near her fullest range). Next up is a further single release, Sound & Light, which has darker dirtier synths (though pales in comparison to those Will Gregory creates), in a solid synth-pop track, as is subsequent track Reverberotic – though this track has more of a gallop to the beat, and great use of pitch bending in the choruses and has a nice little outro, which was unexpected. Strange Things Happen has a very 80’s club-scene synth-pop dimension to the musical composition, in a track where Alison teases her upper range of vocals, which is fantastic to hear – and, not co-incidentally, is my favourite track of the album. If generic pop-style beats are your thing, you’ll love UltraSky … it’s not for me, though, while short track Play It (Shine Like a Nova Star) takes a third of the track’s runtime to get going, but once it does it has some good dirty synths in (sadly) an otherwise unremarkable synth-pop track.
First single release Find Xanadu is another strict dance-pop/electro-disco track (which is the clear theme of this album) and it’s going to be used in a thousand advert campaigns, as will Cinnamon Light, though this is a more euphoric track, very much in the ‘Kylie-in-her-pomp’ vein. Penultimate track Ordinary Day has a shimmering effect to the synth beats, and Alison’s tones take a light and breezy feeling to them, and this journey is ended with Magma – a very ‘euphoric trance moment’ beginning, which leads to another galloping beat, where Alison’s vocal’s play second fiddle (somewhat).
Flux is a bit too mainstream for my Goldfrapp liking – a more mainstream, safe dance sound suited for the mainstream clubs, somewhere between synth-pop and Italian disco. The production is fantastic and vocals (as always) are sublime, but without Will Gregory I feel like Alison sings within her comfort zone (which is far better than most artists entire range, by the way), and the synths are missing an edge – case in point: her cameo on Royksopp’s True Electric album track, Impossible, is a far better track than anything Flux has to offer (IMO). I’m sure this will be an extremely popular album, and will do very well, but for me there is an edge missing which elevates Goldfrapp music from ‘amazing’ to ‘unbeatable’. I’m obviously adding a few tracks to my favourites, but am left going back to Felt Mountain, Black Cherry and Seventh Tree, and pining for her time in GoldFrapp – hopefully they can get back together and do some more industry-shaping work.
