There’s a certain poeticism that Alison Goldfrapp’s The Love Invention— her debut album as a solo artist—is greeting listeners with the cusp of summer. For many, the season has roots in rebirth, a period for change and reflection. For Alison, that sentiment couldn’t be more fitting. A mainstay of electronic music for over two decades, the artist has amassed an impressive repertoire of hits like “Ooh La La” and “Strict Machine” and innovative bodies of work like the 2005 Grammy-nomi- nated Supernature as one half of the duo Goldfrapp. Along with Will Gregory, the pair’s producer, and synthesizer, Goldfrapp’s distinctive pop sound became a constant of festivals and dance floors alike—but as with many, the onset of COVID lockdowns caused Alison to ponder her true purpose. “I needed to step back from [music] and take a rain check,” the artist notes. “Like, ‘Is this what I really wanna be doing?’ I spent time drawing, making artwork, and taking photographs. That was an important process–a discovery.”

That process is one that traces back to Alison’s most formative years— an artistic passion that blossomed between her countryside upbringing and adolescence in London. Growing up in Alton, Hampshire, the musician attended a convent school until age 11, where she sang in the choir and developed a unique kinship with the academy’s nuns and stark, sprawling grounds. Genres like disco and rock and artists like Bowie and David Cassidy remained constant fixtures of her upbringing and, in part, prompted a move to London at 17. “I hung out in a lot of clubs in London,” she recalls over Zoom, hidden behind black sunglasses and casually sip- ping a cup of tea. “I wanted to get into music, I was answering ads in the paper, crazy stuff, really. I met people in a band, [and] ended up going to Antwerp, Belgium. They were doing music for a ballet company, and that allowed me to be there for a couple of years.”

It was in Antwerp and later as a part of Goldfrapp that Alison’s soaring vocals and effervescent persona flourished on the mainstage. After Goldfrapp’s 2017 album Silver Eye, Alison took a hiatus from music—one that was unintentionally prolonged by lockdowns. Sheltered in her East London home, the artist eventually got back into the swing of things musically—beholden to no one but herself. “COVID forced an independence that I hadn’t had for, well, a very long time,” the creative reflects. “I set up a studio at home [and] discovered what I could do on my own, that was new for me.”

Alison released her first projects as a solo artist with “Digging Deeper” and “Fever” earlier this year, as well as “So Hard So Hot,” the lead single off of The Love Invention. The synth-pop banger is bold—with Alison’s breathy vocals chanting liberating lyrics like “It’s the nature of now/So love what you got” backed by slow-building yet thumping production. Elsewhere on the album offers up signature elements of Goldfrapp— tinges of disco, blaring synths—infused with sultry, dark electronica and on tracks like “The Beat Divine,” a newfound sense of liberation. “The Love Invention, in a literal way, is about the discovery of this machine, this elixir that transports you into feeling ultimate outer body wonderfulness,” Alison explains. “I was very focused about what I wanted to do with this album.” The Love Invention is a dedication to the dance floor, an exploration of transition, and a quest for euphoria. But it’s also an artist, two decades into her career, at her best. Someone whose creative tenor is ceaseless. An artist reawakened—and finally on her own terms.

The Love Invention is available on all streaming platforms beginning May 12, 2023.

This feature appears in the pages of V142: now available for purchase!

Photography Nick Thompson 

Fashion Jordan Kelsey 

Makeup Francesca Brazzo (The Wall Group)

Hair Adam Garland

Production Alexandra Oley

Hair Assistant Aminara Kamara