It’s a little confusing to think of this as Alison Goldfrapp’s first solo album. All seven Goldfrapp albums bore her surname and an image of her alone on the cover. Her musical partner, Will Gregory, kept an even lower profile than the usual synthpop dynamic – which has served us well from Eurythmics and Pet Shop Boys to CHVRCHES and Years & Years today – of charismatic attention-hoovering singer plus glowering anonymous bloke or blokes in the background. He didn’t even play in the live band.
The real dividing line between Goldfrapp and Alison becomes apparent when you press play. Goldfrapp had their fun, dancier moments across a long career that saw them rise from the tail end of the trip hop scene and touch on wistful folk and lush soundscapes along the way to their last album, Silver Eye, in 2017. What simpler pleasure could there be than a grinding dance track called Ooh La La? Other upbeat Goldfrapp songs such as Train, Rocket and Strict Machine depicted relentless machine movement, an unstoppable robotic propulsion towards the dancefloor.
