Ladytron – Ladytron

The Ladytron story finally continues almost 8 years after 'Gravity The Seducer'
Ladytron - Ladytron

Album facts

Release Date: February 15th 2019
Label: Self-Release
Genre: , ,
Discogs: Link
Partially sounds like: Marsheaux, Client

Ladytron is back with the self-titled 6th stu­dio album 'Ladytron'. The latest album is cold as ice and dark as a dysto­pi­an fic­tion of the scar­i­est way. An album that cre­ates an atmo­sphere like no oth­er, des­pite catchy Electropop melodies.

Furthermore is much bet­ter than it's exper­i­ment­al pre­de­cessor 'Gravity The Seducer' that we haven't pub­lished a review because of the low over­all score.

The joy­ful news: Sound tech­nic­ally it moves some­where between 'Witching Hour' and 'Velocifero'. As I men­tioned at the begin­ning: Ladytron is (fuck­ing) back!

No time for superficialities

The open­er "Under The Fire" has a nice organ-groove from the 60s com­bined with organ­ic sound­ing, clas­sic drums and later then added ring clamp. The synths also seem to be older ana­logue syn­thes­izers or really well-made soft­ware-based samples. At least the sound con­struct sounds won­der­fully warm and you are imme­di­ately embraced by the new album 'Ladytron'.

It sounds like a smooth Electropop song, but 'The Island' swam through a black lake of mel­an­choly before it was soundly draped in dry cloths. Wonderfully melod­ic and catchy, yet you hear a deep pain of des­per­a­tion every note played.

Without regret, a heav­en lost at sea, a tox­ic intuition.
Fate loves desire, we are sirens of, of the apocalypse.
Lyrics from 'The Island' by Ladytron

Ladytron (2018)
Ladytron (2018)

'Far From Home' is the fourth track of 'Ladytron' and impresses with spher­ic­al sur­faces in an acous­tic moun­tain and val­ley ride. The already sweet vocals dis­tract almost com­pletely from the dysto­pia of the lyr­ic­al con­tent. The whole pack­age in a mid-tempo Electropop bomb makes up this par­tic­u­lar mix. Silent, but deadly.

The thumbscrews are tightened

A little harder, now also son­ic­ally, con­tin­ues with 'Paper Highways'. The drums are already kick­ing in and the song presents itself a bit crunchi­er. In con­trast, the chor­us sounds like a nurs­ery rhyme with a pinch of mad­ness. A really great track that cre­ates sus­pense on the album and is not unne­ces­sar­ily protracted.

The first single from the new album is called 'The Animals'. After this release the anti­cip­a­tion was great! That's what 'Ladytron' sounds like to me. Somewhere between 'Witching Hour' and 'Velocifero'. Okay, a smash hit like 'Destroy Everything You Touch' or 'Runaway' might not sound like it, but it's closer than any track in 'Gravity The Seducer'. Thanks for that.

Is it that we know we are animals?
Lyrics from 'The Animals' by Ladytron

'Deadzone' has fresh, creak­ing beats with tightened pace. Especially the bridge did it to me. Well done! After already almost famil­i­ar sounds remin­is­cent of the clas­sic­al times, 'Ladytron' trans­ports their sound with 'Deadzone' into the present. Yes, this is now Electropop at the state of the art.

Also with 'Figurine' we stay on the ton­al mod­ern track of the 'Ladytron' train. The samples and sounds are becom­ing increas­ingly gloomy and the deep sad­ness in this album now can no longer be denied. Particularly cap­tiv­at­ing is this nasty, pier­cing and repet­it­ive sound tip. Chased by ghostly sound­scapes from one side to the oth­er. Kind of creepy and uncomfortable.

A perfect reflection of our sad times

With a fem­in­ine bang, almost an inter­pret­a­tion of the Big Beat genre in 'Ladytron' style, the track 'You've Changed' fires from all Electropop bar­rels. The track is great for dan­cing and loud singing along.

The energy increases with the pro­gress of listen­ing to the album. The first two seconds of 'Horrorscope' come damn close to a Techno / Eurobeat drum roll of the 90's. But then it will also be mod­er­ate again. However, the drums are driv­ing and the dynam­ics are really strong in the song as well. Every now and then, an inter­spersed elec­tric gui­tar sur­prises me with hec­tic­ness and curiosity.

After the storm, the apo­ca­lypse and dark vis­ions, 'Ladytron' sprinkles a son­ic hope with the song 'The Mountain'. For me the most pos­it­ive sound­ing piece on 'Ladytron'. But if you expect a happy pop melody now, I have to dis­ap­point you. A heav­enly-sound­ing women's choir accom­pan­ies the song through­out in minor.

Buy sadness and feel good

An album as bit­ter­sweet and fant­ast­ic as a desired end of the world. 'Ladytron' is truly back and I love the new self-titled album. I only can highly recom­mend this album if your like bleak elec­tron­ic music with pro­found lyrics.

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2019‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating

Ladytron - Ladytron
Ladytron – Ladytron
Until The Fire 
The Island
Tower Of Glass
Far From Home
Paper Highways
The Animals
Run
Deadzone
Figurine
You've Changed
Horrorscope
The Mountain
Tomorrow Is Another Day
Recommend
The Island
Paper Highways
Deadzone
Weak
(Nothing to report here)
3.9
Bittersweet

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Until The Fire
The Island
Tower Of Glass
Far From Home
Paper Highways
The Animals
Run
Deadzone
Figurine
You've Changed
Horrorscope
The Mountain
Tomorrow Is Another Day
Final Score