8bitcruncher said:@NovaLasing Unfortunately both reviews behind paywalls.
The
50-year-old singer looked fabulous and sounded imperious, her soprano
flitting from operatic whoosh to icy warble to filthy purr
★★★★★
This
barnstorming show was evidence that, when she’s on form, Alison
Goldfrapp deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Grace Jones,
Björk, Kate Bush and the rest of the great alternative divas. The
50-year-old singer looked fabulous, dressed in a billowing black trouser
suit and topped by hair the colour of marmalade. And she sounded
imperious, her soprano flitting from operatic whoosh (Utopia) to icy warble (Dreaming) to filthy purr (Black Cherry).
Like
many musical extroverts, Goldfrapp is rather diffident when she’s not
singing. “I want to say something, but I get really nervous,” she said
during one break between songs. No matter, because when the switch was
flicked she transformed into an all-conquering dominatrix. Backed by a
seriously punchy four-piece band including two keyboard players, she was
silhouetted throughout like the world’s sexiest shadow puppet.
Goldfrapp
and her musical partner, Will Gregory (who doesn’t perform live), have
experimented with considerable success in folk, new wave, cabaret and
pagan pop. Number 1 had big blaring chords and Blondie melodies, while Lovely Head,
their breakthrough song from 2000, was a haunting movie mashup, part
spaghetti western, part Bond theme, with Goldfrapp slinking like an
arthouse Shirley Bassey.
The band’s defining sound, however, is a stomping mix of electro disco and glam rock. So it was here, from Ride a White Horse (throbbing, thrilling) and Ooh La La (think Marc Bolan doing naughty things with Donna Summer) to several of the songs from their excellent new album, Silver Eye, which is released on Friday. The pick of these was Everything is Never Enough, an epic of shoegaze vocals and glistening, chunky electronica.
By
the end even Goldfrapp’s stage patter was flying. “Are you having a
good time?” she asked, adding pointedly over the volcanic cheers: “I
need to know!” That line played on the stereotype of the needy diva, and
there may be some truth in that where Alison Goldfrapp is concerned. If
so, who cares? A diva without an ego is a pointless thing indeed.
Somerset House, London, July 9; Latitude Festival, Suffolk, July 14
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