Ladytron

Album review

Though they were wrongly lumped in with the electroclash movement not long after their arrival in the late '90s, Ladytron proved themselves to be sharply observant precursors to the synth pop resurgence that hit its peak in the early 2010s -- which is when they took a lengthy hiatus. During the band's time away, Helen Marnie released two solo albums; Daniel Hunt established himself as a producer and composer; and Reuben Wu made a name for himself as a visual artist and photographer. Eight years after 2011's Gravity the Seducer, the simply named Ladytron reasserts the fundamentals of the group's music -- namely, Marnie's and Mira Aroyo's vocals and the pulsing synths that surround them -- and they still sound fresh. Dense, driving, and melodic, "Until the Fire" is such an immediate opener that it feels like Ladytron never left, and the rest of the album revitalizes the spirit behind their music as well as its style. With its blobby bass and busy arpeggios, "Far from Home" could be a lost track from 604, while the excellent "Figurine" whooshes and sparkles like something off of Light & Magic (or Delia Derbyshire at the discotheque), and "Tower of Glass" calls to mind Witching Hour's beautiful melodies and harmonies. The band also find room to introduce some new twists on their time-tested sound on "Horrorscope," which fuses fairy-tale spookiness with an industrial edge, and on "The Island," which borrows some of Chvrches' gleaming synths to make its refrain "We are savages" all the more unsettling. Indeed, Ladytron proves that their skill at crafting glamorous, dystopian pop is as sharp as ever, and maybe even more meaningful in the late 2010s than before. As they contrast the chaos of nature -- and human nature in particular -- with detached electronics on songs such as the sci-fi fable "The Mountain" and "Run"'s disturbingly pretty game of cat and mouse, the results feel at once relevant and true to their heritage. A welcome return, Ladytron is a remarkably consistent and engaging album that befits the band's status as synth pop veterans.
© Heather Phares /TiVo