Seeing as this place seems in dire need of some
balance, Mirror offers you an alternative review of
the future release of Britains pop duo Goldfrapp, Tales
of Us (2013).

Everyone seems to have forgotten what an absolute
turkey Head First (2010) was.
This is in no way an unfair criticism; how much
credibility does a record have when even its own singer wants to erase it from
the catalogue?
The songs were no more than discarded candy wrappers,
badly written, badly produced and without any attention to musical texture or
color.

The contrast with the band's debut album could not be
greater: they went from being a genuinely innovative electronic duo to a failed
parody of a middle-of-the-road pop outfit with a self-obsessed singer.

But how does one claw their way back?

After Goldfrapps failed attempts at impersonating
[insert: any 80s popstar], she now appears in danger of going down the Stevie
Nicks road.
The snippets currently floating around the net, with
their twanging hippie guitars, sound as if they've given up on electronic music
all-together.
On top of that, Goldfrapp seems to have lost all
inspiration: where at least Head First was still a personal
album, in the sense that it celebrated the singer's new found lesbianism, she
now seems to be cashing in on the gay love of others.
"Clay", describing a wartime romance between
two soldiers, replaces personal tales with voyeurism.

The singer was quoted saying how moved she was by
reading the correspondence between the men, and now hopes to exploit this as
source material, hitching a ride on the emotions of others, covering up the
emptiness of her own?

Given that the last few years has seen the coming of
age of electronic (pop) music, often with female musicians at the wheel, Goldfrapp
seem an anachronism.
The genre they once helped to shape (Felt Mountain, 2001)
now seems to have passed them by.

It remains hard to believe that a band responsible for
Head First could redeem themselves
within the musical landscape.

Even the new artwork feels hardly renewing; the
pictures accompanying the press release echo American photographer Cindy
Sherman - ironically, famous for impersonating other people throughout her
work, as such criticizing the emptiness of women in modern visual culture.