Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #248007 in Music

Customer Reviews

A bit tempered, but a good trip regardless
I couldn't wait out the nine-month delay for the US release, so I bought this album as an import. It's good solid stuff, but I don't think it measures up to their first two albums.

"Felt Mountain" was a dreamy voyage through svelte lounge pop, and "Black Cherry" was a spewing geyser of electro-synth technolust. "Supernature" is, musically, a perfect chimera of the two: toned-down pop songs with time-progressions and structure similar to "Felt Mountain", but using the electronic wall-of-sound from "Black Cherry".

I do enjoy this album, even though I initially found it underwhelming, because the duo are still putting together songs that are untraditional and interesting, and I didn't notice this right away. The songs are more subtle and don't rely on either raw energy (ala "Black Cherry") or a unique lounge vibe ("Felt Mountain"). While I think this album is the weakest in their portfolio, it's possible that I'll enjoy it more with time, and besides, even Goldfrapp on an off-day makes most radio-standard pop seem like algorithm-generated plodding.

(This album is scheduled for a US release in March 2006. Be warned that imported versions have been found to have either copy protection or OpenDisc-based DRM technology, which can cause problems with computer, car stereos, portable disc players, etc. Hopefully the US version won't come hampered with such warts. Also, there are rumors that the US version will have additional tracks gleaned from the singles releases, so it's probably worth waiting for.)

Some of the best modern pop music I've ever heard
I simply love this album for so many reasons. It is unashamedly technological and keyboard orientated. It features real tunes! It acknowledges its influences - Bowie, Marc Bolan, Glam, Kraftwerk, Eno, Biba, Little Nell, Honky Tonk, Cabaret, Jazz, Techno, Trance, Classical Music and a whole load of other stuff! Alison Goldfrapp's vocal are always interesting and appropriate and this is a really enjoyable, stimulating, entertaining, witty and thoughtful album.

"Supernature" is as good as the other Goldfrapp albums, "Felt Mountain" and "Black Cherry". How many other modern artists have managed to produce three excellent and satisfying albums like these?

I've been listening to "Supernature" every since it came out and I am still enjoying this album.

Worthy of investigation, even if you're not normally a fan of "Pop" music!

Black Cherry 2
The duo from Bath, England is back at it again, and they're serving up another generous helping of 80's Disco. If you find that to be an oxymoron, then you really haven't heard the genius that's Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. The sonic electro glam territory that Goldfrapp mined anew with 2003's Black Cherry continues in their latest release, Supernature. No one likes to see a band as talented as Goldfrapp rest on their laurels, but they seem to have done just that. That's a good thing and a bad thing. The opening track, Ooh La La knocks it out of the park. It could have easily been a toss away from the Black Cherry sessions, but it stands firmly on its own. The pulsing beats and blips skim across a wall of bass. Goldfrapp, ever the cabaret sorceress, emerges and croons with a cold, almost rancid eroticism, "Dial up my number now/ weaving it through the wire". It does the trick. By the time the chorus comes along to rip out your throat, it has hypnotized, then pounced and locked the listener in a venus flytrap vise.

This is why it's disappointing to say that none of the other tracks quite live up to Ooh La La's bold promise. Just as unsettling is the lack of any experimentation that marked their debut Felt Mountain as such an avant garde and freakish masterpiece. I term the word "experimentation" very loosely here. Supernature is certainly not "Pop" or mainstream by any stretch of the imagination. There are still enough odd futuristic flourishes and rhythm shifts to make the corporate radioheads scratch their noggin. But it just feels as if Goldfrapp went so far out that they came right back to the same spot. The album is oddly accessible and opaque at the same time, as if Goldfrapp is struggling between the urge to embrace her inner Kylie Minogue or cleave to her stylistic leanings. The results are maddeningly frustrating. Slide In for instance, sounds dated and new at the same time. With no strong hook, the song just languishes in 80's nostalgia territory - getting moldy right next to your brother's Flock of Seagulls mullet. Satin Chic is much the same, although a wacky piano/synth punches up the affair some. Koko has a weird aftertaste, but why did they bother to channel Swing Out Sister, especially since they weren't that great the first time out?

And still, this is not to say that any of the tracks, including the ones above, are completely irredeemable. They're not. Alison Goldfrapp's vocal register ranges anywhere from a sad, breathy alto to a slattern's purr. The songs benefit from her high yelps and off kilter delivery. Ride a White Horse is a perfect case in point. It's a great track, right down to its electro-curlicues and weird synth burps, but her vocal ticks make it all the more fun. Think an automaton Greta Garbo singing, "Now take me dancing/At the dis-co/ when you buy your Winnie-bay-go/I wanna ride on a white horse".

When she gets it right, it can be a fun ride. Fly Me Away is an airy romp. Number 1 is just as fluffy and heartfelt. Let it Take You is a ball of atmospheric melancholia that gently melts you away just as madly as Ooh La La thrashes you. Time Out From the World is another downtempo piece that's not half as riveting as Take You, but a gorgeous and melodramatic sweep of violins dive in on the last minute to erase the dullness of the first two.

I want to like Supernature more, but all it really achieves is what Black Cherry had already successfully set out to do. 80's Synth Pop has never been so faithfully recreated and reinterpreted at the same time. And if Goldfrapp needs to stall creatively somewhere, this suits them well, I guess.