Overlooked Classics: Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree

This one divided critics and audiences alike. The fourth album from Goldfrapp is a perfect spring album, all twittering birds, green fields and sunlit idyll. It’s a deliberate left turn from their previous foray into the sexually-charged glam of Black Cherry and Supernature.

The folktronica direction evokes Nick Drake playing guitar under an oak tree, Kate Bush flailing wildly in a white smock dress, and the children’s TV that was steeped in neo-Victorian imagery, like Bagpuss. We’re talking the nostalgia of the seventies here.

It all seems so peaceful, so beautiful. Until you listen to the lyrics. A And E is based on a real overdose Alison took, Clowns has a go at reality TV bimbos with silicon implants, desperate for fame, and Happiness puts cults under the spotlight. It’s almost as if the seventies saw the rise of capitalism. Oh wait, it did. The seventies were horrendous. This album, though, is gorgeous.