Seventh Tree signals a new direction for Goldfrapp, but I suspect that it is merely a stepping-stone to a new Goldfrapp sound. The album's second single, " Happiness", peaked at number 25 on the UK chart, while the third single, " Caravan Girl", reached number 54.

The look of the glamorous disco diva that appeared on Black Cherry and Supernature is replaced by a more natural but slightly less confident appearance. It can be upsetting to longtime fans, but often times the only real hurdle to these new directions is unfamiliarity-- just look at Goldfrapp, who startled their earliest fans by shifting from the surrealistic elegance of their 2000 orchestral-pop debut Felt Mountain to a beat-heavy mid-decade run at the dance charts. As our old chum John Thomas might have told us, an artist given to the sudden musical volte-face is impossible to predict.After spending years on the dancefloor with Black Cherry and Supernature, Goldfrapp take a breather with Seventh Tree. Set yourself free, remove the shackles that are holding you down and you can fly like a `Little Bird'. If a well-known pop artist alters their style-- especially if it deviates from a sound that made them a commercial success-- there's often this urge to label the musician as bored and impulsive, chasing new trends or jumping off bandwagons as if holding off stagnancy is their only motivation to test their creativity. The album then slows down with a set of sadder, slower pieces that talk about loneliness and despair about broken relationships. Kat Lister of NME expressed that " Seventh Tree is bound to ruffle a few electro-feathered fans, but there's no denying it's a venture that sets the pair into new experimental territory.

So how could a group that's already established success with slow, lush ballads-- think 2000's "Pilots", 2003's "Forever", or 2005's "You Never Know"-- release an album filled with a whole bunch of uncompelling attempts at them? After the glorious synthpop plus of Supernature, Alison and Will continue to mine those spinal shivers with this emotive pastoral perfection. Other than that, it arrived when it should have (Friday's day of release), and I saved it for a nice Saturday morning listen with biscuits. They don't come much more well-worn than pilfering the slippery funk and cinematic strings of Serge Gainsbourg's Melody Nelson, yet Cologne Cerrone Houdini is a delight: a slow, sensual drift of a song, further enlivened by Goldfrapp's intriguing decision to sink zer verses in a Cherman accent. The album reached the top 10 in Belgium and Ireland, and the top 20 in Australia, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland.All of Gregory's codeine melodies would be a lot more salvageable, however, if Alison undercut it with the trademark strengths of her voice. Recorded with longtime collaborator Will Gregory out in rural Somerset, Seventh Tree feels like an attempt to fuse the pagan folk of cult English horror classic The Wicker Man to a lush backdrop of woozy electronics and a restrained orchestral sweep reminiscent of '70s-era Serge Gainsbourg. Equally evident is that Goldfrapp and Gregory's songwriting powers have not been damaged in transit: opaque the sound may be, but the melody is beguilingly beautiful. Sonic luxury has been the only constant in the duo's sound, from Felt Mountain's darkly lavish soundscapes to Black Cherry and Supernature's decadent dance hits, and there's plenty of it here, too. It was unprecedented enough that a group which started out trafficking in cabaret eeriness and cinematic grandiosity would ease so naturally into club-pop, so it's not out of the question that dialing back to pastoral, folksy indie-electronica would unearth another side of a duo that was shaping up to be one of the decade's most versatile.