Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp are a British electronic duo formed in 1999 by Alison Goldfrapp (vocals/synthesizer) and Will Gregory (synthesizer).

Their style has changed over the years - each album sounds very different to the one before, but roughly speaking, Felt Mountain and Seventh Tree are more subdued (the former is mainly electronic, the latter picks up a Folk Rock influence), Supernature and Head First are more danceable (the former being pop-rock, the latter disco), and Black Cherry seems to split the last two somewhat equally. This can lead to a bit of a Broken Base sometimes.

They have quite a large worldwide fanbase, due to their various styles and frequent commercial usage.

Alison Goldfrapp is also known for her work as a session vocalist with Orbital, Tricky and others.

Discography

Their discography runs as follows:

• Felt Mountain (2000)
• Black Cherry (2003)
• Supernature (2005)
• Seventh Tree (2008)
• Head First (2010)
• The Singles (2012)

Along with:

• Wonderful Electric (DVD/CD, 2003)
• We Are Glitter (remix album, 2006)

Goldfrapp provides examples of the following tropes:

• A Good Name for a Rock Band: The band was named after the lead's last name.
• Bi the Way: Alison
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: From "Fondue Knights": "Feel so small/underneath these skies/this dirty porn star/isn't big enough." Wait, what?!
• Call Back: Whether intentional or not, "Caravan Girl" (We'll run away, run away, you and me.) seems to reference "Twist" (I want to run away with you, your caravan and rabbit stew.)
• Careful with That Axe: "Slippage"
• Darker and Edgier: "Black Cherry". Their remix for Lady Gaga's "Judas" does this for the original song, Up to Eleven.
• Dream Team: Worked with Christina Aguilera on her "Bionic" album
• Dye Hard: Alison is a natural brunette, but she dyes it blonde.
• Early Installment Weirdness: Felt Mountain is quite surprising for fans introduced through their later work. However, it is still often cited as their masterpiece, for perhaps the same reasons.
• Eye Scream: "Little Bird": "Though much to her surprise, he had two mouths for eyes." Way to freak us all out there, guys...
  • Perhaps a reference to the Corinthian from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman?
• She Also Did: Alison has done guest vocals for Tricky's song "Pumpkin", and quite a few Orbital songs.
• Hotter and Sexier: Black Cherry as compared to Felt Mountain.
• Incredibly Long Note: "Slippage"
• Intercourse with You: By the truckload (Probably every song on Black Cherry) - "Crystalline Green", "Train", "Twist", "Slippage", "Strict Machine", "Ooh La La", "Little Death", "Hairy Trees"...
  • "Strict Machine" is probably Intercourse With Marital Aids.
• In the Style Of: The song "I Wanna Life" was criticized for sounding like Irene Cara (of Flashdance fame).
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: There are a few tracks that are very hard to find since they were never released on an album. The most well known- "Little Death", "Sartorius" and "Fondue Knights"- were played during the Felt Mountain era, since Goldfrapp only had the songs from Felt Mountain to play and needed other songs to play at concerts. It's also quite hard to find songs like "White Soft Rope" and "Gone To Earth", which only appeared on singles.
• Last-Note Nightmare: "Deer Stop"
• Lighter and Softer: Seventh Tree was much lighter compared to Supernature.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Every song on Seventh Tree.
  • A version of this appears in the video for "Alive". The video is entirely dark and creepy because the song and lyrics are so bright and happy.
• Lyrical Shoehorn: "Train", "Deer Stop", "You Never Know"
• Mind Screw: The videos for "Ride A White Horse" and "Alive", the last appearing to be a cross between Xanadu, an exercise video and a Satanic ritual.
• Ms. Fanservice: Alison.
• New Sound Album: Every single one. From cinematic, spy-film ambience (Felt Mountain), to poppy electroclash (Black Cherry), to 70's glam (Supernature), to soothing folktronica (Seventh Tree), to 80's synthpop (Head First).
• Non-Appearing Title: "Hairy Trees", "Koko", "Deep Honey", and others.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "How? Long? Now? Honestly, how? Long? Now?" from "You Never Know"
  • To an extent, "Koko".
• Sanity Slippage Song: "Slippage"
• Signature Song: "Ooh La La" or "Strict Machine"
• Singing Simlish: "Oompa Radar", "Felt Mountain", "Slippage", "Voicething" and "Gone To Earth".
• Surreal Music Video: The videoes for "Ride A White Horse", "Alive" and "Number 1".
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: "Pilots". With or without the dreamy music video.
  • "Head First" is an utterly sugary, truly lovely song.
  • "Little Bird", "Road to Somewhere" and "Cologne Cerrone Houdini" from Seventh Tree.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Touch my garden" from "Hairy Trees"
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Most if not all of Felt Mountain.
• Word Salad Lyrics