Goldfrapp: Head First

Title: Head First

Release date: March 23

Label: Mute

Take a look at the record cover you see to right of this text. Head First by the dance-pop band Goldfrapp sounds exactly like you'd think a record with this cover would sound like. And that's either gonna be something right up your alley or something you'd just as soon never pollute your brain with.

Obviously, the '80s are cool in the eyes of the current generation of music makers. Countless bands I've listened to this year in "Nothing Not New" have more than a few nods to the "Go for it!" decade. But Goldfrapp takes slavish devotion to the '80s to new levels. 

When Goldfrapp is not employing the super-cheesy synth sound from Van Halen's "Jump," the band sounds like it jumped in a hot tub time machine and landed in the studio where the soundtrack to the movie Xanadu was recorded. Wait. I actually liked that soundtrack when I was a kid (especially the side two, which were ELO's songs, and that awesome song that Olivia Newton-John did with The Tubes), so let's instead say the Mannequin soundtrack. 

So, if Mannequin was your thing back in the day, knock yourself out with Goldfrapp.

Best song: "Alive" ("I woke up with the rising sun / I was blinded by the light / Jump up and pull on my jeans / It feels good, they're a little tight / Step out in a crazy world"). Go for it, Goldfrapp!

Rotation: Low

Deja Vu: Aerobicise: The Beautiful Workout

I'd rather listen to: The Pointer Sisters' "Neutron Dance"

Grade: D 

March 18 -- jj: jj no. 3 (C-)

March 4 -- Gorillaz: Plastic Beach (A-)

Feb. 22 -- Shearwater: The Golden Archipelago (D+)

Jan. 28 -- Priestess: Prior to the Fire (B)

Jan. 1 -- Scanners: Submarine (B-)