Ladytron — Light & Magic

Like Miss Kittin and the Hacker, Ladytron were analog when analog wasn’t cool. With last year’s 604 album, the Liverpool-based quartet became poster children for the electro-pop revival. That said, they were working the minimalist blips and bleeps long before the scenesters crashed their party.

Light & Magic is sure to be identified as yet another fine electroclash moment, what with its "Warm Leatherette" inspired opener, "True Mathematics." There are more organic moments, however, such as "Blue Jeans" and "The Reason Why," where Ladytron sounds like a real band.

Interestingly, there’s a subversive tone to the album, most notably on the track "Seventeen" ("They only want you when you’re 17/When you’re 21, you’re no fun"). Taking the trend-setting music and media industries to task, "Seventeen" could be seen as a direct rebuttal to the hype machine that’s propped up Ladytron as the next big thing.

In all, Light & Magic is a fine album, playing on 604’s monotone vocals and synths, but also adding a little bit of warmth to the rigid grooves. It may not be as uniformly sound, but it’s clearly the product of an evolving band. 

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