Head first into the kiddie pool

Ouch. Reading that headline’s gotta make your head hurt the same way mine hurt when I listened to the recycled confusion of Goldfrapp’s latest “Head First.”

The melodies are catchy, the music coy and seductively icy and the lyrics evoke something very 1985 in a very strange way. Think DayGlo body suits, Jane Fonda workout tapes and glorious scarf advertisements.

OK, Goldfrapp, we get it — disco is dead, and you are mourning. That shtick was done superbly on their 2005 electro-glam raunchfest, “Supernature.” What happened between then and their last effort, the deeply weird, folky, “Seventh Tree” was a creative leap for the better.

The return to traditional form doesn’t work on this album when fake-sexy cuts like “Dreaming” feature the lyric, “I’m only dreaming” a billion times for five minutes over pads and throbbing synthesizers. “Voicething” works as background music.

“Head First” hits its emotional depth with “Rocket,” the album’s first track and first single. Everything else on the album feels like diving head first into the kiddie pool.