Ladytron’s new album, the expertly-titled Ladytron, is not the tour-de-force return-to-form that everyone keeps saying it is. It’s a good album, that much is true, but it is not Light and Magic or 604.

I have to commend Ladytron for sticking with their futuristic sound for so long without running out of ideas, but one will notice there is a safeness to the record that even a fan cannot deny. They still sound as confident as ever, yet it is difficult to argue that this confidence is borne out of daring and experimentation, rather than coming from their increasingly inside-the-box approach. In other words, Ladytron have made themselves a nest over the years, and they are all too comfortable to never venture out of it.

There are some good, atmospheric tracks scattered around. ‘Until the Fire,’ ‘Far From Home,’ ‘The Mountain,’ and ‘You’ve Changed,’ to name a few. In fact, there’s nothing particularly bad on display here, although I must admit that it is hard to imagine some of these songs playing in the neon clubscapes that regularly come to mind with the band’s music.

Indeed, if anything brings the album down for me, it’s that while the band is still capable of crafting murky, danceable atmospheres, it does not feel as immersive as before. There is a distance now that cannot be denied, as though we were no longer listening to a song, but quite explicitly listening to Ladytron playing a song.

Part of me feels this is a lyrical problem. They feel more on-the-nose than before, as if they doubted the relatability of their older, less specific work. It’s a shame, because the effect is that the cheesy Electro-pop forefathers influencing Ladytron have finally begun to take control, and the band simply isn’t as cool as they used to be in their younger years. The entire attitude has been changed in the subtlest of ways. If you didn’t look closer, you might not even realise that Ladytron’s old style, that sensuous, feminine futurism that radiated pure slickness, has been replaced by a mask, not quite different, but too far from the real thing to be anywhere near as enjoyable.

Still, it’s alright. Worth a listen if you’re into that kind of thing.

Three stars.

Zack Moore