Albums that made me: "Felt Mountain" by Goldfrapp

 

Way back in the early noughties I had a work colleague who wouldn't shut up about this album, to the point where I actually thought there was something seriously wrong with him. 

"You HAVE to listen to it" he said. "You HAVE to, you will not believe how good it is when you do!"

So like the willing sucker I am, I went and bought a copy and damned if he wasn't right. 

"Felt Mountain" by Goldfrapp merges the machine-like beats of Will Gregory with the soaring operatic vocals of Alison Goldfrapp and as Kevin said, it is almost too good to be true. 

Their first commercially successful album (after several forays into excellent EPs and musical projects), "Felt Mountain" remains their best album in my humble opinion, thematically and tonally different from everything they've done since. 

Back at the time I started listening to this, I had a habit of escaping out into the countryside with a portable CD player (remember those?) and a stack of batteries, striving to find a place to just get away from people. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not - but there's something about this album that lends itself well to those moments of isolation when it's just you and the scenery. 

The album kicks off with "Lovely Head", a tune that wouldn't feel out of place slapped onto the start of a classic Hammer horror movie, or a 1970s police procedural with the kind of rising wailing vocals and amazing synth work the band became famous for. 

Other standout tracks include "Pilots", a dreamscape that instantly soothes and caresses your lugholes in truly amazing ways, and "Utopia" - every inch a solid banger that thumps along brilliantly. But for me it's the title track that is the track I'll always skip to on my playlists, not cleverly lyrical or anything but just good solid soundscaping. 

I remember the first day back in work after I'd finally given in to my ex-colleagues musical peer pressuring, and just saying "yeah yeah yeah, you were right, suck it up" and him breaking into a colossal toothy smug smile. I have listened to this so many times over the last 22 years, and I doubt it'll ever leave my playlists - so good I ended up buying the durned thing twice when I thought I'd lost my original copy, only to find it glued into the CD player in the car.