Strict Machine

Goldfrapp, Gregory and Nick Batt wrote it for Black Cherry, and Goldfrapp produced it. Alison had read in a newspaper about experiments in which scientists stimulated rats' brains so that the animals felt joy when they followed commands. She wrote the song from images of the experiment and what she called more human aspects of machines and sex and control. The actress Gwendoline Christie is on the sleeve in a rabbit mask, and the tour DVD Wonderful Electric took its name from the lyrics.

It was released as the second single on 21 July 2003 and debuted at number 25 in the UK. A re-release on 10 May 2004 reached number 20, their first top-20 single. In the United States it topped the Dance Club chart for a week and reached number three on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. It sold over 170,000 copies worldwide and won the dance award at the 49th Ivor Novello Awards. Pitchfork put it at number 379 on its list of the top 500 tracks of the 2000s.

NME's Peter Robinson wrote that it should be number one immediately. Blender's Dorian Lynskey compared the song with Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Jonas Odell directed the video, with animation from the Stockholm studio Filmtecknarna. When Rachel Stevens released Some Girls in 2004, its sound drew comparison to the track. The duo had given Richard X an unmixed copy to remix and rejected his version, and he wrote the Stevens song shortly after.