musicAddicted

Throughout the first ten years of their career, so neatly summarised on their best-of collection earlier this year, Ladytron never quite achieved either the abstract atmosphere or the psychedelic art-pop essence of the Roxy Music song that gave them their name. Early albums 604 and Light & Magic were long on perfect singles but short on convincing evolution, while the great leaps forward of both Witching Hour and Velocifero came closer to true elegance (in the mathematical sense) but lacked the diverse experimental ingenuity of their muses. Evidently, the missing piece of the puzzle didn’t lie in catchiness, echoing guitars or stark synth lines; the challenge for Ladytron in creating the perfect pop sound they’d always strived for was to develop an assurance of their own capabilities while rejecting any and all self-awareness. Remarkably, they’ve very nearly succeeded with the refreshingly spacious Gravity The Seducer.

While the accompanying visuals are predominantly linked with wide open, desert terrain, instead of the hot, inert air of the Sahara or a cruelly whipping sandstorm the songs feel wonderfully balmy with warm and cool streams mixing together to create an almost paradoxically vivid haze. The dream-pop first apparent in the slower pieces of Witching Hour (CMYC, All The Way) is deepened and softened in the two leading singles. White Elephant, a song that conveys both affection and unexpected kindness with a touch of triumphalism, occupies a new space within Ladytron’s music, a breathy, warm corner cosseted by simplistic but effective strings and one of their most candy-coated melodies to date. Ambulances takes an even gentler approach, easing up the tempo and melting into a dreamscape commanded by the sweet voice of Helen Marnie, but Ladytron wisely refrain from going into unnecessarily misty fields. Yes, the songs here are more atmospheric – an adjective exemplified best by the vaporous Altitude Blues, where Mira Aroyo expresses her somewhat incoherent impressions over a synthetic landscape reminiscent of Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra – but their abstractions are just one element of the dreamier aesthetics at play.

Read the rest of my review on Wears The Trousers while listening to amazing song White Gold which would be a perfect fifth single.