FOREVER IN FLUX: ALISON GOLDFRAPP

ALISON GOLDFRAPP RELEASES HER SECOND SOLO ALBUM, TURNING FROM HIGH-GLOSS DISCO TO SOMETHING MORE INTROSPECTIVE.

By Megan Liu

“Hey Hi Hello,” is how Alison Goldfrapp opens Flux; the song is a greeting that doubles as a reintroduction. Now on her second solo album, the 59-year old synth-pop visionary is far from winding down. Following 2023’s The Love Invention, which leaned into the euphoric, high-gloss disco of Goldfrapp tradition, Flux turns inward. “I imagined a space that was vast, a feeling of being focused, but also this dream-like movement,” Alison tells Beyond Noise. That vision carries across the album—this time more introspective, sonically spaced out, and built on shimmering synths and slow-blooming textures. The result is a body of work filled with unguarded melodies and emotional tension, tracing moments of release and the fragile pull of renewal.

“Strange Things Happen,” in particular, went through multiple iterations before reaching its final form. What started as an upbeat track layered with arpeggiated strings was eventually stripped back and rebuilt from the ground up. “I just couldn’t get a grasp on it,” Alison says. “I decided we should give it a completely different emphasis on the rhythm, and in doing so, I found the intention for the song and made new melodies.”

The result is something contemplative and airy, examining the fragility of relationships and the moment when energy is channeled towards the self. On the line, “I’m gonna be there for me,” Alison reflects: “I think sometimes in a relationship that’s harmful, you get to a point where you have to stop giving and draining yourself. That love and time needs to be reversed and reserved for yourself in order to survive.” It’s a process that could mirror, in some ways, Alison’s artistic journey—moving closer to a sound that’s all her own, newly introspective and restorative.

Much of Flux was written during a slower season in Stockholm. Alison, working alongside longtime partner Richard X and Swedish producer Stefan Storm, spent her days between the studio and the still corners of the city. “It felt so calm, and I really loved that,” she says. That stillness became part of the record’s infrastructure. Flux marks Alison’s full independence as an artist, her own label AG Records serving as its home. In both sound and process, she’s made space for something more enduring and personal, accepting reinvention as a stepping stone, not a detour. As Alison puts it: “As humans and society, we are always in flux, aren’t we?”