Ever since Allison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory abandoned the stretched-thin trippy delirium of her self-named band’s debut, Felt Mountain, for the roaring basslines and punishing, razor-sharp synthetic circus of Black Cherry and it’s even-more-of-it followup Supernature, I’ve been in love,madly and darkly. Allison’s off-her-gourd glitter, with sparse few moments of human emotion trampled and stomped by the now-synonmous-with-Goldfrapp animal sexuality vulgaris has always been perfectly backed by Gregory’s dance-floor destruction was Ed Banger before there were Waters in Nazareth (go listen to “Strict Machine” again, now).

But, But, But. But I must bring this talk to a halt. I don’t want to get into an overly-length history of Goldfrapp YET AGAIN, especially when I feel said discussion’s going to be necessary to give a proper, full review of their forthcoming, Feb 2008 album Seventh Tree. Instead, let’s say this:there’s as big of a leap of faith required to get from Supernature to Seventh Tree as was required to get to Black Cherry from the starting point. And, at times, it feels as though we’ve cycled back ’round to Goldfrapp the crooner, Goldfrapp whose heart is beating true blood instead of powders and neon.

This time, though, the pretty-Goldfrapp, removed from her filters and her 18-inch platforms, brings what’s going to be one of the best albums of next year.

Goldfrapp: A&E removed because apparently not ONLY does EMI not know how to market this stuff unless Grey’s Anatomy’s involved, I’m ALSO a crappy writer! HUZZAH!

God, I didn’t say any of this how I wanted to-and that’s really the effect hearing Seventh Tree’s going to have on long-time Goldfrapp fans, those who remember trying to place “Twist” into any sort of contextual discography with the band’s prior touchstones like “Utopia”. It’s off-putting…but well worth the effort. Seventh Tree, with sparse moments of electronic flourishes, whisps of orchestration and Allison slinking around an acoustic guitar as though she’d just discovered honesty, sobriety and morning light, takes a few times to accommodate. Its’ first single, “A&E”, is disarmingly true to Goldfrapp’s previous body of work in terms of heartbreaking-yet-wry lyrical content, but is also, again, an introduction to this sort of honest, plaintive landscape that Goldfrapp’s inhabiting now.

Never before would Allison’s voice have softly wrapped around a chorus like this one. Never before would her phrasing so border on alt-country. It’s fresh, still wet with morning dew, terrain. And then the hypnotic uplift of the song’s end, and you know, it’s evident, that this is a Goldfrapp composition, because it still has that amazing euphoria that they’ve built their reputation on.

I’m not really sure how Seventh Tree’s going to be received. In fact, I feel quite strange having fallen as deeply in love with it as I have, given that I’ve always shit-talked Felt Mountain and praised Goldfrapp the coked-up peacock robot with the leopard-skin boots. It’s possible that, with the over-saturation of crappy, farting electro in the musical climate right now, one of the bands that helped elevate that sound, the blood-on-the-disco-ball aesthetic, to an artform, has decided to move to something more honest, less trite, more sincere. There’s still Goldfrapp’s attention to detail, but in terms of their catalog Seventh Tree is the sunrise to the shattered, stained night that’s just now ending.

This is beautiful, beautiful stuff-risky, also, given that a Supernature re-tread would have smelled of current-’lectroca$$$h-in but would also have brought them to the bank more than once, and probably have resulted in some sort of Justice collaboration or some other horror like that. As it is, that makes “A&E”, as a single, all the more respectable, and once that’s accepted it just becomes gorgeous and shimmering, as it should be.

Am I really that concerned with how this album will be received? With, given that current musical landscape, what “the people” will think? Yeah, I am. More than being a self-styled journo, I’m a long-time fan. If you’d told me, mid-love affair with Black Cherry, that they’d be making a pastoral record after finally achieving worldwide dancefloor success, I’d have laughed at you. Now, I’m in love. After having begged and pleaded for 2007 to do something for me, musically, stuff’s finally starting to happen, and Seventh Tree feels both like a detox and a second chance. Do I re-visit Felt Mountain? Do I write up the new turn of sound as a (literal) sobering affair? I have absolutely no clue, and I’m anxiously awaiting words. I have none for now, none that say how utterly great this stuff is, so I’ll leave it to Allison’s lyrics to do that, and I’ll just listen to the album again. And again.

It’s a blue, bright blue Saturday
And the pain’s starting to slip away

I’m in a backless dress on a pastel ward that’s shining
They gotta watch you still
But there may be pills at work

Do you really wanna know how I was dancing on the floor?
I was trying to find you when I’m crawling up that door
I won’t tease at you the things you say that you don’t do
Why don’t you wreck?

I was feeling lonely, feeling blue
Feeling like I needed you
Like I’m walking up surrounded by me…a&e.