Review: Ladytron, Gravity the Seducer
Like a modern-day, gender-flipped answer to Roxy Music, Liverpudlian electropop quartet Ladytron has a taste for gorgeous synthesizer melodies and a romanticism that manages to be heart-on-sleeve and icily detached at the same time. (Ladytron even winked at the influence on the cover of 2003s Softcore Jukebox, in which co-lead singers Mira Aroyo and Helen Marnie posed in swimwear in a PG-rated nod to Roxy Musics Country Life.) Gravity The Seducer, the bands fifth full-length and first new album in more than three years, is more atmospheric and wistful than 2008s Velocifero, but stays well within Ladytrons firmly established framework of chilly but hooky baroque-pop.
Given that the catchiest song here, Ace Of Hz, was first released on last years career-retrospective Best Of 00-10, the lack of a propulsive single to match earlier gems like Destroy Everything You Touch and Sugar, as well as an overabundance of instrumentals, suggests a band thats spinning its wheels. Still, while Gravity is a bit cold to the touch, that wintry feel is also a big part of Ladytrons charm. The groups love songs have always embraced metaphors suggesting a lingering fear of the inability to connect emotionally, an android-like anxiety that pops up again repeatedly on Gravity, especially on the elegantly beautiful Mirage and Melting Ice. So what if they arent moving forward, when holding their ground sounds this good?
Originally published Sept. 13, 2011 on avclub.com. Read the complete article.