Time Flies

Album review

Anyone from Australia or New Zealand will remember the era of Ladyhawke’s first massive hit, My Delirium (2008). The era of poorly styled ‘80s’ homages (all-neon everything with an excessive amount of accessories), overexposed and over-edited photos, but most importantly, the late 2000’s brought us 80s pop revival mixed with modern pop rock, which is exactly what made the world fall instantly in love with Ladyhawke in the first place - she wrote music for the ‘now’. A lot has changed since Pip Brown’s (Ladyhawke) first album, however even thirteen years after that first release we find ourselves falling in love with Ladyhawke and her knack for synth-pop revival all over again. 

Time Flies indeed and Brown’s latest release comes after a series of hardships and revelations that she experienced since her last album Wild Things (2016), making this one of her most liberated albums yet. Throughout her career Brown has unfortunately had to deal with the homophobic side of the music industry and the world around her, being told that her queer identity was not what fans would want. This awful feeling of inadequacy due to her identity is something that has followed her throughout her career, despite the industry becoming more progressive. On the track Guilty Love, co-written with Georgia Nott of Broods, Brown sings “Every time I pray, I just pray to be free” in response to the toxic homophobia of the Catholic Church, and on Reactor she sings “Hey there lonesome man, I sing this song for you, Your time has long been over” in response to the men out there who just can’t take ‘no’ for an answer, even from queer-identifying women. Among these songs with their direct and meaningful lyrics, there are other hits like the interstellar disco aura of Walk Away, the groovy spoken-work-esque Mixed Emotions (a stylistic choice Ladyhawke became well-loved for) or even the slower title track Time Flies with its fuzzy guitars and pulsing synths which are reminiscent of Kevin Parker’s earlier works, or reflect a little bit of solo synth influence from fellow kiwi Ruban Nielson (Unknown Mortal Orchestra). 

Beyond the homophobia, many other lifechanging things cropped up on the road to this album, such as the birth of her and her wife’s child Billy Jean, the postpartum depression that followed, Brown’s diagnosis of Clark Level 5 melanoma, her surgery followed by her recovery, and the revelation that she could finally shake the self-consciousness and criticism she had carried around for so long. Through this hardship, there was liberation and light at the end, and this has transferred into the album Time Flies. It seems Ladyhawke has championed these difficulties and has produced a fun, fresh and free album, handing us not only a supremely enjoyable listening experience but also a lesson in love, labor and life. © Jessica Porter-Langson / Qobuz