Velocifero (studio album) by Ladytron

From paladisiac 06/28/2012 14:27

2005's "Witching Hour" was Ladytron's coming out party. They seemed to mature past the "novelty" synth-pop typified by their group name as well as the possibility of being a one hit wonder following "blue jeans" and released a full album of driving, glam electronica with a slight grrl edge. "Velocifero" is a sorta-sequel, but the music's a little darker and the music's a little more fleshed out. It's as if they're saying, our songs don't need to be so catchy to still be damn good, with two songs sung in BULGARIAN of all languages. (Who even knows bulgarian anymore??) The hits are still intact despite too much emphasis on songcraft-over-song, with the sweetly-haunting "ghosts" ("there's a ghost in me who wants to say 'i'm sorry'"), the charging pulse of "i'm not scared", the thumping paranoia of "runaway" and the echoing synth-throttle of "predict the day". (The solid "Black Cat" would join this group if sung in english -- i'm a lyrics man dimmit!) All-in-all this is a solid album which only feels like a letdown in that they don't take another giant leap forward -- only a well-thought-out side shuffle.