Ladytron show they can still transport to the ether with new single ‘Kingdom Undersea’
The world may be spinning out of control, but amid the turmoil in global politics engulfing us all, we can at least count our blessings that Ladytron’s back with another banger.
They never went away, dropping two albums after their eight-year quasi-hiatus since 2019, but it’s difficult to extricate yourself from Ladytron’s 2000s heyday.
Electronic music was alive and kicking then, electroclash was firing off and LDC Soundsystem was leading the way for indie and dance music’s happy marriage toward the decade’s end, but it certainly felt like Ladytron were wielding their synths in a serious way long before anyone else since synthpop’s golden age when first dropping ‘He Took Her to a Movie’ in 1999.
It wasn’t just the synths, but the aura too. Ice-cool, stylish uniformity between the quartet, penning numbers that spun with prophetic romance and introspective sheen at a time when Limp Bizkit was still mugging the charts.
Before the minimal synth resurgence had exploded in the wavy underground, Ladytron were singlehandedly carrying synthpop’s torch during the dark days of the early 21st century.
Which leads us to ‘Kingdom Undersea’. One of the singles leading up to Paradises in March, the first without founding member Reuben Wu, Ladytron further the expansive sonic palette they’ve been exploring across recent records, scoring a stirring and euphoric engulf of dreamy ether that dances on that fraught waver of the electronic and organic, a knife-edge skill Ladytron have mastered over the years.
As the title suggests, everything’s a bit blue and subaqueous down there in ‘Kingdom Undersea’s depths. Shimmering piano stomps soar around kinetic basslines and crisp drum machines, all swirling to entrancing effect.
Fronting the operations are Helen Marnie’s effortlessly unique vocal coos, illustrating a nebulous lyrical realm of “Walls of marble, limbs of steel” where “the rhododendrons flower” with evocative intrigue.
It’s everything they’re great at. Mysterious, classy, transportive, Ladytron has unearthed another razor-sharp pop gem that glows with a majestic hue, touching some of their former electro-peaks. After nearly 30 years together, it looks like Ladytron’s synth magic is still shining nicely.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.