My father used to drag us around the countryside. He was (and still is) the kind of father that knows the names of all the plants, all the ferns, all the birds. He found us dock leaves when we stung ourselves (why dock leaves? Couldn’t it be a more readily available in hedgerows placebo, you know, like just normal grass or something?) and he would do this trick of grabbing stingers at the top and saying he never got stung. I learned, to my cost, that wasn’t comepletly true either.
But I did learn to if not love, then certainly enjoy the English countryside and even now, much as I’m sure it did for my father when he took his children out on these long walks not just to tire them out so they didn’t get up at six o’clock in the morning, but to think. It sort of clears the mind, gives you time to really ponder on what to do and how to solve things.
Also in the English Countryside over the last few months have been Goldfrapp, aka Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, recording their sixth album ‘Tales of us’ which drops on the 9th September. As usual with the band, it contains perfect, cinematic electro-pop with tales of love and loss, fairytales and folklore.
Premiering from the album is lead track Drew, which the group have released as a short film. It’s got this sort of natural cinematic nature about the whole thing, with Alison’s voice at its emotional, smokey, best.The song opens with this classical sounding piano figure, and it continues on that theme when the lower strings join. It’s the sort of song that makes you gulp.
Thank God for the English countryside
