We might be more civilized and better dressed, but human beings are still just animals at the end of the day. Ladytron has returned after a seven-year hiatus with “The Animals,” a hallucinatory track of primitive synths and angelic harmonies, with lyrics considering our more savage instincts.
Having originally garnered a reputation for playing in unusual spaces like abandoned banks or bowling alleys, the Liverpool group—made up of Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt, Mira Aroyo and Reuben Wu—eventually ended up performing with artists like Björk, Nine Inch Nails, and for Brian Eno at the Sydney Opera House. Eno said in an interview, “Ladytron are, for me, the best of English pop music. They’re the kind of band that really only appears in England, with this funny mixture of eccentric art-school dicking around and dressing up, with a full awareness of what’s happening everywhere musically, which is kind of knitted together and woven into something quite new.”
During their seven years apart, half the band moved across hemispheres, and all of them worked on solo projects and new collabs. In 2016, they began to write and record together again. Their sixth full-length album will be released this year, and promises a new range of atmospheres and themes. While “The Animals” still sounds like Ladytron, it hints at changes to come. Produced by Jim Abbiss, who worked with the band on “Destroy Everything You Touch” and the Witching Hour album, the package also comes with a remix from electronic pioneer Vince Clarke and a video clip filmed in Brazil’s vibrant São Paulo.
A second single follows this summer, and the album comes out in fall, both via Pledge. The Pledge Music campaign provides Ladytron the opportunity to make the album independently and reconnect with their audience.
