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Goldfrapp and Gregory have made an album as hummably lovely as it is knowingly referencing of a certain tradition of neo-psychedelic English whimsy.
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The disc is buoyed by an underlying pop sensibility, epitomized by the bubbly 'A&E' and 'Caravan Girl.'
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What Seventh Tree actually does - successfully - is tap into a very English spirit of eccentricity, taking the mellow floatiness of Goldfrapp's earliest work and imbuing it with a dash of Hammer horror and the aroma of country meadows.
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Seventh Tree ultimately may have club-happy "Supernature" devotees shaking their heads, but for those of us who cherish all things weird and wonderful in the land of Goldfrapp, it is a welcome (and much-needed) return to form.
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It's a very sleepy listen--though often a vey lovely one. [29 Feb 2008, p.61]
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From the first minute till the last, this is enthralling, invigorating stuff, and because of that it's comfortably the duo's best album yet.
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It’s a brave, bonkers, often beautiful, sometimes haunting and occasionally ridiculous album.
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Seventh Tree is a moody, understated gem. A finer hangover record will be hard to come by in 2008.
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After a couple of listens it reveals itself as Goldfrapp's most subtle, affecting and rewarding album to date.
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Seventh Tree is as deliciously subversive, and in some cases more so, as the duo's past work.
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It's clear that Goldfrapp doesn't miss the style the pair perfected on their last two albums, nor should they--this is some of their most varied, balanced, and satisfying work.
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Seventh Tree is most compelling for the way in which the band's regained austerity and naturalism contrasts with their more recent hedonism.
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What keeps Seventh Tree from lapsing into music for looming by is Goldfrapp and Gregory's inventive instrumentation, which harvests the warmth of electronic pop and marries it organically to acoustic instruments.
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Seventh Tree represents a dramatic rethink: out go the stomping glitter beats and whip-crack synthesisers, in comes "psychedelic folk."
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It might be a quieter and more introspective disc than we’d been expecting, but this is still a quintessential Goldfrapp album with Gregory’s arrangements brilliantly underscoring the inimitable vocal versatility of his female foil.
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Each track on Seventh Tree is a picture that stands alone, but in its entirety the record works as a landscape decorated with guitars and pianos spread over hills of upbeat drums as strings and woodwinds line the sky in the background.
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MojoA lush and trippy affair with shades of Edward Lear-like surrealism and John Winston Lennon amid strawberry Fields. [Mar 2008, p.103]
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Q MagazineThe results are psychedelic, frequently surreal and occasionally brilliant. [Mar 2008, p.99]
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A must for anyone still heavily rotating Moon Safari.
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It is a welcome return home to a band that had been on quite the bender.
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Fans of Beth Orton and the French group Air will find much to swoon to throughout Seventh Tree.
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Under The RadarGoldfrapp minus electroclash equals Seventh Tree. [Winter 2008, p.82]
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Will Gregory’s sparkling webs of acoustic guitar, synth and strings allow the more slender melodies to slide into vaporous prettiness, but Goldfrapp’s voice remains extraordinary, as witchily sensual as Kate Bush’s, as otherworldly as a theremin.
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This whole thing sounds great, though: rue, clenched fists, and closed eyes mixed at an arena pitch.
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Seventh Tree is the inevitable comedown, a pastoral holiday that trades glittery hedonism for quiet contemplation.
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Ultimately, Allison is a pleasure to listen to even in the space where she floats right through your head.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 59 out of 70
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Mixed: 7 out of 70
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Negative: 4 out of 70
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Dec 8, 2013
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Aug 10, 2011
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Nov 3, 2010