A tough old week, yes, as explained in my last post just gone live, but one which has afforded some opportunities for reflection and consideration. Still, the news this morning that the handsome, kind, intelligent, and always gracious Stephen Gately of the pop band Boyzone has died suddenly, aged just 33, has upset me and really rocked my world. My beloved is only three years younger than Stephen, I am only nine years older. When awareness is brought home of our mortality—the fact that we can be here one day and gone the next—it is both sobering and disturbing, and it is a reminder that every moment is sacred and precious. This is all the more a truism when a good person has left this world.

Stephen was a wonderful gay role model, and the media had a hard time when he was alive finding any whiff of scandal about his person, though during Boyzone’s peak years of success Stephen was advised (or told) to keep quiet because of all the band’s female fans (it was thought his being revealed as gay would lead to poster-free teenage bedroom walls across the land and, more importantly for the marketeers and music execs, unencumbered as they are by morality and care, less money coming in from music sales and gigs). Stephen had a long-term partner who he married in a civil partnership ceremony some years ago after they’d already been together a very long time. I’ve no idea what he was like away from the public eye but one suspects he was as kind and gentle as he consistently came across as being when interviewed. He certainly should not have died at so young an age.

I am so sorry for his family and his friends. The news of his too early death is tragic and very, very depressing.

I’ve long liked Goldfrapp but the new album, Seventh Tree, is their best offering yet. The new single A&E is typical of the album’s sound: lush, organic, floaty, mesmeric. Seventh Tree is a tightly- and expertly-crafted album that comes across as being conceptual without the high-brow connotations normally implied by use of that term.

In an age where intelligent pop is rare, Seventh Tree should be welcomed by anyone who isn’t defined by a specific genre in terms of the music that interests them, but instead simply appreciates the really good stuff.

Several tracks remind me, with their soft and gentle William Orbit-esque electronica arrangements, of Madonna’s greatest-ever long-player, Ray of Light. Sometimes, listening to Alison Goldfrapp’s breathy and aurally-seductive vocals, I am reminded of Sandie Shaw kicking around in the 1960s sans shoes, before being whisked away in my head to images of Kate Bush cavorting in dry ice while lip-syncing to Babooshka.

All of this isn’t intended to suggest Seventh Tree is in any way derivative. It isn’t. It’s just that Alison Goldfrapp has in many respects grown naturally over time, instead of being forced like rhubarb under a bucket by record company executives to go in directions unwanted. The new album sees Alison and her co-conspirator in the fight against pointless pap, Will Gregory, turn their backs—at least for now—on the dancefloor grooves of previous offerings. Seventh Tree lacks nothing despite this bold evolution in sound which might potentially alienate some long-term fans but will most definitely reach out to procure new ones.

Doubtless some of the tracks when released as singles will be spoiled with unnecessary beats applied over them in this or that club remix. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ooh La La as much as anyone can, but Seventh Tree is not a dance album and obviously wasn’t intended to be. It’s a collection of songs to soak yourself in after a hard day; a deliciously-scented bubble bath.

This isn’t an album for kids, unless they’ve somehow acquired a sense of discernment years ahead of time. It’s an album for grown-ups looking to reacquaint themselves with a little elegance and class in pop music. Seventh Tree is a somewhat mystical-sounding title, and the album definitely has a new age, Pagan, even gothic feel to its songs, although it never descends into darkness or despair. A more appropriate descriptive for its emotional tone would be melancholic. It’s certainly not depressed or depressing.

Seventh Tree has a remarkably healing, soothing effect. It reaches out to your soul and strokes it. It’s a truly remarkable achievement, and there isn’t a duff track to be found in the collection—any one of them, if released as singles, would be light-years ahead of anything else taking up space in the charts these days.

I’d recommend you rush out to buy, I most certainly would if the album was available right now, but I’ve been lucky enough to hear a pre-release version. But I wanted to give my readers the heads-up on what might turn out to be the best album of 2008 (and yes, I know we’re only in February). For the time being, get the single A&E . And yes, it is available not only as the version you hear in the video above, but as a bunch of remixes I can’t comment on as I’ve yet to get hold of them—so whether they’ve beefed up the revs for the dancefloor, I can’t say. There are two mercifully DRM-free EPs, and you can download them from iTunes here and here for just £1.99 each.

So go dress your MP3 player in something really fancy. I’m about to go grab the EPs myself as soon as I’ve published this blog entry.