Number 7 of 2005 — Ladytron: Witching Hour

Up until the release of this, their third album, I thought of Ladytron as a somewhat quirky, pop-obsessed electroclash outfit. Their previous releases contained some great pop songs (e.g. Playgirl, Seventeen), and some throwaway giggles (i.e. P.A.C.O.!), along with an overuse of foreign language. Useful to have in your collection, critically acclaimed, but never vital.

Witching Hour, on perhaps its third listen, became something much more than I had expected. Daniel Hunt, Reuben Wu, Mira Aroyo and main vocalist Helena Marnie have produced an album that is scintillating. Perhaps the problem was the single that immediately preceded the album. Destroy Everything You Touch [video] sounds great in the context of the album, but as an introduction to where Ladytron are now, not so great. So let’s rewind, back to the start.

And back to High Rise. It’s the first chord change on High Rise that blows the previous two albums away. It marks the merging of rock music and electronica. No guitars were hurt in the making of this album. And it shows that analog modelling has come a long way. Helena’s insanely reverbed dreamy vocals add to the vast space that this song inhabits. Then there’s the tension leading up to the break before everything bursts back to life.

Only after listening to High Rise can one appreciate Destroy Everything You Touch. High Rise is the teaser, but Destroy.. leaps in with punishing beats and lyrical decisiveness. “Everything you touch you don’t feel / Do not know what you steal / Shakes your hand / Takes your gun / Walks you out of the sun”. By the time International Dateline hits – only three songs in – we’re deep underground. Music this dark shouldn’t sound this uplifting. And it gets darker.

Soft Power, amTV – all nightclubs and aftermaths, Sugar [video] with its glistening wails all provide more aspects of the dark side of humanity. It doesn’t stop with the Bulgarian vocals of Mira Aroyo on Fighting In Built Up Areas.

But when Last One Standing appears, the album becomes personal, reducing everything previously sung to an issue between two people. Weekend appears to relish in the torment of the rat race, and what some people do to compensate for it. Beauty#2 is their prettiest song, despite its lyrics, “I sent you out to play last night / The alarms went off at three / Funny how I know nothing now / Loneliness the guarantee”, borrowing heavily from the synth-goth movement of the 1980s, and White Light Generator takes a turn on the shimmering effected guitars that Cocteau Twins loved. Closing song, All The Way takes this idea and their techniques even further, becoming a pulsing ambient ballad.

Witching Hour sees Ladytron become more confident in songwriting and production. Their music has evolved into an almost perfect mix of two genres, which elevates them above those who ache to be this cool and aloof. Lyrically, too, things have improved. Now listeners get sideways glances into what’s being sung about. It’s an album that’s so chilled, so cold that it burns.