Tag: Ladytron

Review: Ladytron – Time’s Arrow

Returning with their first full-length album in four years, Ladytron are back with their distinctive style of electro-pop music with Time’s Arrow – an album that, like most of their catalogue, hypnotizes you into an altered state and also makes you want to dance at the same time.

“City of Angels” might be about Los Angeles, but it seems more about a city inhabited by beings of light to which Ladytron can readily travel through their use of heavenly synths, electronic beats, and ghost-like vocals. “Faces come from yesterday and arrive tomorrow,” sing Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo on “Faces” – a song about how people drift in and out of our lives and how we struggle at times to remember them. “Misery Remember Me” is flat-out beautiful with soaring synths and vocals that sounds like they’re bouncing up from a canyon at sunset.

On “Flight from Ankor,” Aroyo sings above shimmering synths about waking from a dream and realizing that the life around her is just as incredible as the dream. “I hear whispers on the wire,” Marnie sings on “We Never Went Away,” a dreamy reassurance to their fans that is a little bittersweet now since one of the band’s founding members, Reuben Wu, left the band earlier this year to focus on his photography and fine art. “The Night” brings the pop to their electro-pop with snappy beats that melt into “The Dreamers,” a darker synthwave track that might have you folding up an origami unicorn.

“Sargasso Sea” sounds exactly like you think it should: Floating synths, seagull calls, bubbling bass, and siren vocals. “California” is possibly a callback to “City of Angels,” and is a song about how the state is a mix of luxury, mystery, and misery. The title track ends the album and has a bold, almost off-Broadway brashness to it with its thudding percussion and swaggering vocals.

Time’s Arrow is a nice return for Ladytron, whose synthwave seduction is always welcome.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Ladytron – self-titled

So far, the winner of Most Intriguing Album Cover of 2019 goes to Ladytron (Mira Aroyo, Daniel Hunt, Helen Marnie, Reuben Wu) for their new, self-titled album.  A young couple runs from a luxury car left abandoned on a road toward a raging forest fire.  They are willingly, gleefully running toward chaos, fury, and death.  If that doesn’t sum up the cultural zeitgeists for many people in the U.S. and the U.K., I don’t know what does.

Ladytron’s new album is their first new material in seven years.  They’ve seen the change in the world’s political atmosphere, the further embrace of technology that is advertised as a communication tool but only drives us into our own literal and metaphorical cocoons, the Brexit vote, the 2016 U.S. presidential election, mass shootings, bombings, hurricanes, civil wars, genocides, and more things that keep us awake at night.  They’ve responded with an album of searing electro and haunting hooks.

Opening with “Until the Fire,” the vintage synths and slightly spooky double vocals us Ladytron fans love immediately swirl around you as Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo sing about the power and danger of desire.  “The Island” is a lush synthwave track that has bright chords that hide a bit of menace (i.e., The last line of the song is “We are savages.”).

“I only came here for the view,” they sing to begin “Tower of Glass” – a song about not throwing stones, physical and verbal, at others.  “Far from Home” sounds like “classic” Ladytron, if that’s even a proper term.  The synths on it sound like they were dug out of Giorgio Moroder’s basement.  “Paper Highways” brings out their love of krautrock, not to mention industrial goth.

“The Animals” is a haunting but toe-tapping song about war, racism, and the insanity of it all.  “We are more like you than the ones than the ones that you view,” they sing.  “Run” has processed beats that would make John Carpenter jealous and mysterious lyrics like, “Stop looking at me with a gun in your hand.”  “Deadzone” has sharp-as-a-knife beats and even deadlier synth stabs and chords throughout it.

“Figurine” moves with an urgency that gets you moving right away and builds to a great rush.  The synth bass on “You’ve Changed” is outstanding.  I’m willing to bet the title refers to not only a particular person, but also the general public who seem to have lost their collective mind (i.e., “You’ve changed.  What were you thinking?”).  This song has probably been remixed by dozens of synthwave DJ’s by now to tear up dance floors, as it should.

“Horrorscope” is plain enough to understand.  Again, just look at the album cover.  The future is full of bad things if we don’t turn around now (“…across the hemispheres, and now it’s always near.”).  “The Mountain” builds from a far echo to a state of  soaring psychedelic synth bliss.  “Tomorrow Is Another Day” is almost relaxing chillwave and would fit on a make-out playlist as long as you want a bit of intrigue while you’re getting your groove on with someone.

It’s a nice return for Ladytron.  Synthwave is making a big comeback, and it’s good to see Ladytron taking the reins and shaking us out of our 24-hour news cycle-induced funk.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Ladytron – Live at London Astoria 16.07.08 (2009)

If you’re like me and eager to hear Ladytron‘s upcoming album and catch them on tour for it, their 2009 release of Live at London Astoria 16.07.08 is a great morsel to tide you over until the new record’s release and subsequent tour.  The show was a rescheduled gig for one that had to be cancelled a couple months earlier due to a power outage.  The band’s urge to make amends with fans can be felt throughout the power of the entire set.

The live album starts off with a robotic version of “Black Cat” with lead vocals in Russian.  “Runaway” follows, bringing dark wave-like bass and great echoed vocals.  The guitars and droning synths on “High Rise” might induce vertigo if you’re not careful while listening to it.  “Ghosts” has some of my favorite Ladytron lyrics, “There’s a ghost in me who wants to say, ‘I’m sorry doesn’t mean I’m sorry.'”  It’s a spooky song about relationships, quite possibly involving at least one lover who is dead.

“Seventeen” is one of my favorite Ladytron cuts, and it’s one of the most damning songs about the fashion industry ever (“They only want you when you’re seventeen.  When you’re twenty-one, you’re no fun.”).  The live version is thumping with synth bass.  “I’m Not Scared” hits hard with bright synths blending with rock drums.  “True Mathematics,” with more great Russian vocals, hits even harder.  I hope they play it on their next tour, because it’s outstanding.  “Season of Illusions” is a bit lighthearted, but don’t worry because “Soft Power” drops you right back into the dark with synths that sound like they’re being played in a tomb.  “Playgirl” was a big hit for the London crowd, judging from their reaction when Ladytron announces it’s the next track.

“International Dateline” is practically a goth love song, and “Predict the Day” surprises you by starting with whistling and then unloading sticky synth bass and sexy beats.  “Fighting in Built Up Areas” is another Russian vocal treat, and “Discotraxx” would do Giorgio Moroder proud with its slick electro dance beats.  They dedicate “The Last One Standing” to everyone who was at the show that was cancelled months earlier.

They chose “Kletva,” “Burning Up,” and “Destroy Everything You Touch” for their encore.  It’s a nice end to a fun show.  They originally just release 100 copies of it at the show, so I’m glad they put it out for wide release.  You should be, too.

Keep your mind open.

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Ladytron offers great PledgeMusic perks for their first album in seven years.

Electro / shoegaze quartet Ladytron are set to release their first album in seven years.  The as yet untitled album will be out later this year, but the current single, “The Animals,” is already available.

Ladytron have started a PledgeMusic campaign for the album to celebrate the new album’s upcoming release, and it has some great perks.  A CD of the new album signed by the band is just $25.00.  There are big bundles of signed music and merchandise, handwritten lyric sheets, colored vinyl copies of the album, and you can even get your name listed in the album credits.  Each pledge level comes with a digital download of the full album and an immediate download of “The Animals” and a remix of the track.

Get this stuff while you can.

Keep your mind open.

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