Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain (2000)

I first heard about Goldfrapp when my sister gave me a compilation CD for Christmas present years ago. There was one song by Goldfrapp on it. I thought the song was okay, but I didn't get too excited about the band just based on that one song. At first I thought Goldfrapp was quite generic electropop band and that wasn't a genre I would've been too excited about. Nevertheless, I was interested enough to borrow some CDs from the library and copying them on my computer. The real change, however, happened when I happened to listen to this debut album of the band. Felt Mountain is mostly very slow and atmospheric. It contains more of a trip hop style than the electronic indie pop sound that dominates some of the later albums. Like with so many different artists and bands, Goldfrapp too was at their strongest on the first albums.


I only bought this album on a CD quite recently. I found it in a local record shop here in London with a couple of pounds. It has nice cardboard covers. It was perhaps only when I bought the physical album that I realised how good this album was compared to the later albums. This is not to say there's no good stuff on later albums. It's just that I really like the ominous and magical sound of this one. There's something very seductive about these sounds.

The album starts with a seductive song Lovely Head that has some amazing whistling and synth sounds that break the otherwise very quiet and haunting atmosphere. I feel like this song could've almost been a Bond theme song. Paper Bag features some acoustic instruments as well and reveals the folkier side of Goldfrapp's sound. That's one of the things I really like about this band. Even though it's mostly electronica, they're not opposed to also use authentic instruments. Human starts off with very high pitch violins that remind me of some strange movie scores. What follows, is a groovy, strange and dark song that reminds me of Portishead. Pilots brings back the high-pitched and spacey synths. The vocals are beautifully soft in this one. Deer Stop has muffled vocals that are very similar to Portishead. The background is filled with fairytale string arrangements. The title-track Felt Mountain begins with slow and etheric vocals, but the music evolves and grows through out the song into Björk-like trip hop craziness. Oompah Radar is a strange waltz with piercing synth sounds that have been topped with melodies that sound like circus music. This kind of absurd psychedelia reminds me of some early Blur songs. Utopia has high-pitched and clear vocals in the background, while the actual lead vocal stays quite low reminding me a lot of Charlotte Gainsbourg's sound. The album ends with Horse Tears, which features organ sounds that sound like they're from a 1940s horror film. When the song starts properly there's some beautiful intimacy and excellent powerful vocals.

I haven't seen any Goldfrapp music videos before, but I had a hunch they would be quite cool considering the theatrical nature of the music. The music video for Utopia is a beautiful yet simple video where Alison Goldfrapp's singing face twirls around in changing colours and lightings. The video also features the mirror-effect that appears in the album cover.

This is why I love doing this blog. I didn't really remember how much I like this album before it came up in this blog. Now I feel like I need to explore the other Goldfrapp albums again as well. I do have many of those albums at least in electronic form, but it's not that often that I deliberately put them on. Highly recommended, unique music.

Listen to the album on Spotify.