English musical duo Goldfrapp’s 2013 release, Tales of Us, was a wonderfully literate experience, and the band’s singer, Alison Goldfrapp, has discussed the numerous inspirations she drew on — “Clay,” for example, was inspired by a letter from one WWII soldier to another.
Goldfrapp collaborated on a series of short films that double as music videos with her girlfriend, film editor and director Lisa Gunning. The shorts are a cerebral experience, just as rich with back story and inspiration on top of one of my favourite albums in recent years.
Over the past few days, Goldfrapp has released two more of the shorts from the series, with one still to come.
Goldfrapp drew on her love of noir pulp fiction, and Gunning was working on the film Seven Psychopaths when she started generating ideas for the films, so it’s no surprise the shorts for “Stranger” and “Jo” reflect a dark, thriller essence replete with queer influences.
“Stranger”:
“Jo”:
The film for “Drew” was released last year after the album came out. It is definitely my favourite track from the album and is at the top of my summer playlist.
“Drew”:
“Annabel,” both the song and the short, was inspired by English-Canadian author Kathleen Winter’s book of the same name about an intersex person growing up in rural Labrador. Probably the most exciting news from the album is that Gunning will be adapting the novel into a feature-length film!
“Annabel”:
The short for “Laurel,” which was my favourite film from the series when they screened Tales of Us all over the world, is yet to be released. Goldfrapp fans can look out for that in the days to come!
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