Black Cherry (Goldfrapp Album) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Black Cherry received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 22 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called it "a laudable, challenging and immensely enjoyable album." However, Michael Idov referred to Goldfrapp as "ambulance chasers" in his review for Pitchfork Media, criticising the band's switch to electro music, while describing Black Cherry as "a soundtrack to excruciatingly banal seduction". Rolling Stone's Pat Blashill disagreed, arguing that "ons of bands imitate the sounds of the early Eighties, but Goldfrapp use New Wave as a way to evoke a long history of shiny Euro-lounge music." In a review for Blender magazine, Dorian Lynskey wrote that on Black Cherry, "Goldfrapp sound right at home." Heather Phares of Allmusic commended Goldfrapp for their "artistic risk-taking", but noted that the album "sounds unbalanced, swinging between delicate, deceptively icy ballads and heavier, dance-inspired numbers without finding much of a happy medium between them." Andy Hermann of PopMatters viewed Black Cherry as "a weird, edgy album, the work of two doggedly maverick talents chasing their muses wherever they take them". Wes May of About.com called it a "rare electronica album of warmth and depth" and wrote that it was "the ultimate chillout pleasure".

PopMatters included the album on its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2003, ranking it at number forty-six. It was listed at number twenty-three on Drowned in Sound's list of the Top 75 Albums of 2003. Black Cherry earned Goldfrapp a nomination for Best British Dance Act at the 2004 BRIT Awards, but they lost to Basement Jaxx.