The Love Invention

The Love Invention is the debut solo studio album by British singer and musician Alison Goldfrapp. It was released on 12 May 2023 as her first full-length project under her own name, away from her efforts as part of electropop duo Goldfrapp. Singles from the album include "Digging Deeper" featuring Claptone, "Fever" featuring Paul Woolford, and "So Hard So Hot".

Background and promotion
Towards the end of 2019, Goldfrapp and Will Gregory were to due to mark the 20th anniversary of their debut album Felt Mountain with the Felt Mountain: The 20th Year Tour in March and April 2020. However, due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the tour was postponed and eventually rescheduled to 2022.

During the pandemic, Goldfrapp began working on solo music. In 2022, she appeared on the single "Impossible" with Norwegian duo Röyksopp. It was her first release credited to her full name. The song featured on the duo's 2022 album Profound Mysteries. Goldfrapp also appeared on "The Night" on Profound Mysteries III, released the same year.

Singles
In March 2023, she released "So Hard So Hot", the first official single from the album.

"Digging Deeper", featuring German duo Claptone, was released as a promotional single on 19 January 2023. "Fever", with Paul Woolford, was released the following month. Goldfrapp later described them as "collaborative remixes" of original songs that were to be included on her debut album. Producers Richard X and James Greenwood contributed to the album. Richard X also featured on Goldfrapp's 2010 album Head First.

Critical reception
The Love Invention received a score of 78 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 14 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception. Harry Tafoya, reviewing the album for Pitchfork, wrote that The Love Invention "sets [Goldfrapp] against sleek synth disco that she mostly complements rather than commands" and remarked that the album's "best moments are its quietest", highlighting "Hotel" and more particularly "SloFlo", the latter of which Tafoya called "a trick of light and shadow more impressive than the album's more labored vamping".

Track listing
Notes
 * undefined signifies an additional producer.
 * "Digging Deeper" with Claptone is a remix of "Digging Deeper Now".
 * "Fever" with Paul Woolford is a remix of "Fever (This Is the Real Thing)".

Personnel

 * Alison Goldfrapp – vocals, art direction
 * John Davis – mastering
 * Pete Hofmann – mixing
 * Richard X – mixing (tracks 1–7, 9), engineering (all tracks)
 * James Greenwood – engineering
 * Tom Archer – engineering
 * Calum Landau – engineering
 * Sam Baker – engineering
 * Jonny Leslie – engineering
 * Mat Maitland – art direction, photography, imagery, design
 * Beth Fenton – styling
 * Goom Heo – clothing
 * Toby Scott – keyboards, programming (track 4)