Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 03/10/05
Label: Island

For those bands who live their lives in black, the shortening of the evenings and gradual drop in temperature must come as something of a relief as naked trees cast their long, foreboding shadows in the twilight hours to resemble the set of a Hammer horror film. Let's face it; summer is a bummer when black is always the new black in your wardrobe and indeed, the fashion designer who nails the goth summer collection will be minted well beyond the grave. Perfect timing then, for the return of Scouse analogue terrorists Ladytron.

Few bands have suffered the slings and arrows of the music business in the way Ladytron have as they ploughed through record labels in the way black holes devour entire solar systems and, coupled with a resolute stance against the dictates of the day, have stood pretty much alone in a world obsessed with the Next Big Thing. Cruelly dumped in the box marked "Electroclash - Do Not Open Near Guitars" by virtue of lazy categorisation, Ladytron have always seemed to be an after-thought rather than the main event.

All this, however, is set change with "The Witching Hour". Granted, with a title like that Ladytron could be seen as setting themselves up for a mighty fall but contained within its thirteen - but of course! - tracks is the sound of a band newly invigorated and hungry for blood.

Whereas Goldfrapp's "Supernatural" is deliciously erotic - all orgasmic sighs and coquettish teasing - "The Witching Hour" is an out-and-out kinky delight as it skulks in dimly lit back rooms seeking outré thrills and forbidden pleasures. Check "Sugar" where the Sex Pistols' "Submission" rams a bottle of poppers up its nose as it cops a cheeky feel of Bowie's "Heroes" while vocalists Mira Aroyo and Helena Marnie salaciously coo, "I'll give you sugar if you give me, something illicit" while "Soft Power" declares that "Broken glass is a luxury…daylight is the enemy" all to the backing throbbing, pumping Moogs.

Ladytron have upped their game considerably. "High Rise" is what would happen if The Raveonettes were given synths to play with in the key of C as low-slung bass grooves collide head-on with screeching keyboards, while the magisterial "Destroy Everything You Touch" is a huge slab of Teutonic disco that goosesteps its way across the dance floor like a jackbooted Baccara. Also at work is a cinematic quality that elevates "The Witching Hour" over their previous work as "International Dateline" and "CMYK" acknowledge the influence of John Carpenter's darker musical moments.

Breathlessly exciting and enormously sexy, "The Witching Hour" is just the soundtrack for your next S&M session. Those winter evenings are going fly by.

    by James Marshall