Send "Goldfrapp " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Goldfrapp have spent the past decade moving back and forth between icy electro-glam and atmospheric balladry, delivering these extremes in tonally consistent albums that dare to alienate listeners who favor one style over the other. Despite this polarity, the duo has a remarkably consistent aesthetic, with a gloss of aloof sexiness and cinematic glamour connecting the sci-fi cabaret number "Utopia", the sinister S&M throbber "Strict Machine", the swelling ballad "Black Cherry", the glam rock stomp "Ooh La La", and the spacey yet pastoral folk tune "A&E".The Singles, their first hits collection, makes a virtue of their range. The 14-track set pares their catalog down to only their 12 most successful singles and two new recordings, resulting in a tight hour of their finest material sequenced like a dynamic, eclectic pop album. A few worthy singles didn't make the cut-- the joyous "Alive", the lushly psychedelic "Caravan Girl"-- but concision trumps completism here, and chronology is tossed out in favor of cohesion. Though Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory excel at crafting delicate, seductive ambiance, their most distinctive and influential music updates the aesthetics of glam rock with a harsh, electronic edge. Their electroclash-era breakthrough hits "Train" and "Strict Machine" are built upon a mercilessly tight schaffel beat that highlights the lyrical themes of decadence and submission. A number of songs from this period aimed for this sort of severe sexiness, but Goldfrapp nailed the tone by emphasizing elegance over sleaze, and by evoking complicated, often contradictory emotions rather than simply foregrounding a lewd subtext....full text |
| Slantmagazine |
| The Singles begins at the peak of Goldfrapp's popularity, with "Ooh La La" and "Number 1," the singles from 2006's Supernature. It's a killer opening act, though it also speaks to the confidence that Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have in their lesser-known material. Even if they'd gone the standard route of arranging these singles in chronological order, the disc would've naturally built to those guaranteed crowd-pleasers. Instead, Goldfrapp presents their best-loved dance singles ("Strict Machine" and "Utopia" follow in short order) as a familiar point of entry into a much more expansive sonic world. By the time the album closes with two newly written songs, both gorgeous, gauzy servings of dream pop, Goldfrapp's mid-decade conquest of the club charts almost seems accidental, a single destination on the duo's intergalactic voyage. Indeed, some of the decisions made in arranging The Singles only make sense once you acknowledge that Goldfrapp is trying to put their phenomenal run of dance singles in a slightly wider perspective. Why else pick the bizarre, "Penny Lane"-as-performed-by-Munchkins pop number "Happiness" to represent Seventh Tree and not the far more successful (and frankly more listenable) "Caravan Girl"? Or leave Black Cherry's "Twist" out altogether? Nearly all compilations invite these sorts of objections, but in this case there appears to be a guiding logic—namely, to present the full breadth of Goldfrapp's music using only singles. And that probably has to do with Goldfrapp and Gregory's future as much as their past. Many fans and critics balked at the mellow freak-folk of Seventh Tree and the portions of Head First that drifted into ambient-pop territory; Head First's dance tracks are about the only recent Goldfrapp songs that have gone over well, which suggests that Goldfrapp and their fans aren't on the same page about what the next Goldfrapp album should sound like. The Singles, then, is a terrific showcase for Goldfrapp's versatility, though on the crucial point of whether or not their midtempo and ambient numbers are as essential as their dance hits, it's not entirely convincing. "Lovely Head" comes early enough in the album to remind us that Goldfrapp and Gregory were psych-pop pioneers before they ruled dance floors, and it remains one of the most captivating and otherworldly entries in their catalogue. But "Black Cherry" and "Believer" feel limp as transitions into the two new songs; written nearly a decade apart, they both aim for hypnotic repetition, but end up wearing out their hooks. In their glorious glam-dance hybrids, Goldfrapp can delay satisfaction, teasing with driving beats and guitar solos to make their melodies more effective. Unmoored from a strong beat, however, the compositions often billow out and sag....full text |
| Thisisfakediy |
| The single’s collection has always been a staple piece of the discography of pop groups, and over their thirteen year career few groups have made such consistently great pop singles as Goldfrapp. The duo, comprising vocalist Alison Goldfrapp and composer Will Gregory, have over the course of five studio albums produced a string of eclectic and memorable singles collected here on their first career spanning retrospective. It is easy to forget just how many great songs Goldfrapp have had. The compilation is front-loaded with their biggest hits, which makes for a particularly arresting opening. ‘Ooh La La’, with its brutally effective electro glam pop, remains their biggest single and its combination of pulsing synths and Alison Goldfrapp’s insouciant purr remains breathlessly exciting. ‘Number 1’ has a more dreamy electro pop sound and both these tracks, as well as the alluring ‘Ride A White Horse’, are taken from the duo’s highest charting album ‘Supernature’....full text |
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