Indie Exclusive Acid Yellow Vinyl

On her debut solo album, Love Invention, Alison Goldfrapp devoted herself to dance music. On Flux, she reminds listeners she's also pop royalty. Her second full-length is among the catchiest of her quarter-century career, and that's saying something. Moments like "Hey Hi Hello" and "Sound & Light" are everything that pop songs with the Goldfrapp name attached to them should be: The airy synths and high notes she hits on the chorus of the former call to mind Head First (not a surprise, since she also worked with Flux and Love Invention co-producer Richard X on that album), while the latter is a neo-'80s paradise steeped in the desire to be overcome by love and music (not necessarily in that order). Even Flux's most dance-oriented songs are sharper and shorter than Love Invention's excursions, with the dangerous curves of "Reveberotic"'s warping synths and "Strange Things Happen"'s transformation of the dancefloor into a swirling galaxy providing two of the album's highlights. That a lot of the tracks here sound familiar doesn't make Flux any less appealing; instead, it's a sleek, stylish comfort zone for both Alison Goldfrapp and her fans. Nevertheless, she keeps the distinction between her solo work and her music as Goldfrapp with Will Gregory clear. Sometimes, she digs deeper into her influences. It's no coincidence that "Find Xanadu" continues the ongoing Olivia Newton-John connection in her music, as well as homages to Moroder and Cerrone in its vintage cool. Elsewhere, she throws charming curveballs, like the bubbling freestyle undercurrent in "Cinnamon Light"'s beat. She also sets the album apart from Love Invention's nonstop momentum by taking the time to look inward on the Seventh Tree-esque reflections of "Ordinary Day" and on the lush "Magma," an ecstatic sendoff to Flux's danceable daydreams. The album may not offer the radical reinventions of Goldfrapp's duo work, but it doesn't need to -- Alison Goldfrapp pioneered these sounds, and on Flux, she's still doing them with effortless elegance.

A1        Hey Hi Hello    3:09
A2        Sound & Light    3:18
A3        Reverberotic    4:18
A4        Strange Things Happen    4:44
A5        UltraSky    4:07
B1        Play It (Shine Like A Nova Star)    2:54
B2        Find Xanadu    3:09
B3        Cinnamon Light    3:45
B4        Ordinary Day    3:52
B5        Magma    4:01