For many, the English synthpop duo Goldfrapp is synonymous with the face and voice of Alison Goldfrapp. After two decades and countless hits like Ooh La La and Rocket, the two are intrinsic. With Goldfrapp, Alison and her cousin Will Gregory established an aesthetic and sonic identity that was unmistakable, an amalgamation of glam rock chic and electroclash sleaze, glossed and glittered with Alison’s scuzzy vocals and hypnotic, kohl framed gaze. Launching a solo career on the other side of twenty fives years as the face of such an iconic act was never going to be simple for Alison Goldfrapp, and on her debut album The Love Invention, she does her best to rise to the challenge.
Part of this involves finding a sound that’s enough of a pivot, but still true to her as an artist. With Goldfrapp having traversed countless dance genres as a frontwoman over the years, this is her biggest hurdle, and ultimate downfall. The album finds itself occupied with nu-disco and house, and while Alison is comfortable here, it’s not a big enough departure to make the distinction between her and Goldfrapp as obvious as it needs to be. Tracks like the vocoded motorik of Gatto Gelato or the airy synthwave of Digging Deeper Now sound like weaker renditions of stronger songs from Goldfrapp’s catalogue.
More often than not, this results in The Love Invention coming off timid. This is due in part to the production, credited to Richard X and James Greenwood (AKA Ghost Culture), the former’s signature ‘synthetic grunge’ showing few traces here. Although technically superior, their choices don’t quite know how to factor Alison’s presence into the album’s overall sound. This leads to a reliance on all too familiar disco house tropes in both the music and lyrics, which when compared to the edgy, hybridised electronica of albums like Supernature, feels frustratingly middle ground. The Love Invention’s brightest moments are those where Goldfrapp isn’t left to compete with the sounds around her. Subterfuge is a shimmering ambient track that’s brought to life by the allure of Alison’s voice, which is given even more space on closing track SLoFlo. A siren-like lullaby, SLoFLo recalls her work as Goldfrapp but feels distinct enough to be its own thing, hinting toward a stronger direction The Love Invention could have taken. Similarly, the mellow deep house of So Hard So Hot works in tandem with Alison’s quirks, presenting the album’s strongest case for her reinvention as house music maven.
Download and stream The Love Invention here
There’s no denying the impact that Alison Goldfrapp has had on dance music. She arguably stands amongst the greatest of our contemporary club queens, and while The Love Invention offers a promising start to her new chapter, it fails to reflect the glory of her legacy. Perhaps it’s a symptom of this very same legacy that The Love Invention feels lacking in attack. About four years deep into the disco house revival, even the likes of Goldfrapp can’t risk relying on the familiar. But between the more of the same, there are glimmers of something special on The Love Invention, all of which can be credited to the power and presence of Alison Goldfrapp. It’s telling that the direction of this album was born from Alison’s work as a guest vocalist on other artists’ songs. One of those songs, Röksopp’s Impossible, was the first in Alison’s career to credit her under her own name. It appears here on The Love Invention’s B-sidey second disc, along with Claptone’s Digger Deeper. By using these tracks as the template for her debut album, Alison Goldfrapp relegates herself to riding shotgun, when really it’s her that we want in the driver’s seat.
Listen to SLoFLo from The Love Invention below.
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