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Ladytron, "The Witching Hour"
It'seasy to dismiss Ladytron: they rode the high wave of electroclash andcrashed with a stinker of a sophomore album during the electroclashbacklash that swiftly made everybody forget who Fisherspooner andPeaches were. The first two songs on their latest album, however,are powerful enough to lay waste all prejudices.
Rykodisc
The clock strikes The Witching Hour with "High Rise," asubtle introductory-esque piece, starting quieter and patientlybuilding to a song full of live drums, guitar, and fat, well-roundedsynth sounds. From there the album pole vaults into one of this year'smost perfect pop anthems, "Destroy Everything You Touch." It's herethat despite Ladytron having absolutely no remarkably original sound,they prove to be able to craft a perfect pop gem. Even though theirsinger sounds like a carbon copy of Tracy from The Primitives, the songhas got an incredible hook, ready for prime time and dangerouslycatchy, staying long after it's gone. Getting past the first two tracksis difficult as Ladytron raised the bar so high so quickly.
They don't drop the listener off in terms of production, as they've donea very professional job maintaining an excellent sense of balance,using a variety of guitar and synth production techniques whileremaining within the bounds of their sound, however, few of the rest ofthe songs are as memorable or actually connect with me on any deeperlevel. "AMTV" is probably one of the bigger mediocrities. Here, thesinger has moved into the German '80s territory, replacing Tracy Tracystylings for a more Gina X feel. The production continues to standtall, however. Even in the slower-paced songs, the most carefuladdention to detail is paid. "Beauty*2" features lush string-likesynths while "The Last One Standing" is accented by pretty chimes overthe fuzzy keyboards and distorted guitar. Without the strong hooks,however, the songs don't have much of a life after they end.
While the album shows a strong evolution for the band in terms ofsound, I would appreciate more time into the art of songcraft, morespecifically: crafting more feverishly catchy songs with better hooksthat resonate long after the songs are over. The success of the firstcouple songs on this record means that Ladytron have cheated obscurity,at least until everybody's sick of playing them on their college radioshows and including them in their mixes, but I think I'll come back tothem for years for my own outlets.
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