Ladytron the next Human League?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Just a thread to say how much I love Ladytron with their sophisticated witty up-date of synthpop. They write some great songs..and are well produced and should in a just world be massive. I think Simon Reynolds got it wrong about this lot...

― Maimonides (Maimonides), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

having once remade the world in a new image you cannot hope to remake it again in that same image and have anyone care

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Shurely they are still the last Human League?

(I quite like them!)

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

(ladytron are okay, for what few songs i've heard: the oly indie rockist neo-electro choice. but, as always, the "are BLANK the next BLANK" seems to miss the point about what made BLANK so "important" in the first place. aside from great songs.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

(also, they all look like they should be in one of those "style guide" books in a hair salon)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 15:35 (twenty-three years ago)

(yeah but so did the HL oh thats the point)

(What I said way back about Oasis/Beatles applies - "They can match the speed but not the acceleration" - not that that's as bad a thing as I thought then - potential difference between L'tron/HL: Phil Oakey has always seemed a very uncynical singer, Ladytron are much more realistic.)

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 15:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Jess, trust me, Danny's looked like that for years. He used to DJ at the cute kitchpop night that was my 18-year-old drink hell.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm sure there are people in this town who've looked like that for years too! no excuse!

(nb: the chiXor's are cuter than the human leagXors)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:19 (twenty-three years ago)

(nb: the chiXor's are cuter than the human leagXors)

NO WAY!!! The Ladytron chicks look like pretty stylish Trash scenesters, but the Human Leaguers looked like a couple of towny girls Phil Oakey saw dancing at a nightclub and asked to join his krew of avant-pop synth experiMentalists (ie the weirdness of two TopShop girls being in a band with an NME band was a key part of HL's success... and is always more interesting than bands who wear uniforms) (and Joanne Catherall was my first pop crush)

I find Ladytron very unremarkable and generic. It all seems entirely too easy. They lack personality. Some may say that's the point...

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:26 (twenty-three years ago)

actually jerry's right...i just looked at the cover of the last human league album and if the ladytron girls look that good in 20 yrs then i'll eat my hat

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

But but but you don't have a hat! *cries*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:36 (twenty-three years ago)

i have several!

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:37 (twenty-three years ago)

:-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005R8GE.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― the fact that this album continues to go overlooked is a tragedy! (dubplatestyle, Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

And a very good album it is. I like it much better than the last Ladytron.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Well said Jess. I've been saying it ever since it came out - 'Secrets' is bloody fantastic. It's a shame it's been largely ignored. Suzanne and Joanne look great on the inside cover too.

JtN said **but the Human Leaguers looked like a couple of towny girls Phil Oakey saw dancing at a nightclub and asked to join his krew of avant-pop synth experiMentalists **

Which is exactly what did happen.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 16:52 (twenty-three years ago)

do Ladytron have any songs other than the divine "seventeen"?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 17:19 (twenty-three years ago)

andy k put a song on a mix cd called "blue jeans" or some such that was quite good

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 17:22 (twenty-three years ago)

They have a number of terrific songs, I think, but it's all very hit-or-miss: one track works wonderfully, the next seems a bit pointless. I’m still trying to figure out what it is that differentiates between the two—a lot of it’s just songwriting, obviously, but there also seems to be some other spark that’s there and then gone.

The production might enter into it, too: their stuff is very dense and claustrophobic, which is the main thing that keeps me from thinking of the quite frequently open-and-airy Big Sound human league.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 17:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Ladytron are the kind of band that are never as good as the first time you hear them. I loved "He Took Her To A Movie" and was disappointed with everything afterwards.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 18:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I capped the wrong letters! My favorite Ladytron track probably = "The Way that I Found You" -- the other difference between this sort of thing and the Human League is that they've wiped off Oakley's belted soul vocals and replaced them with a much shyer indie whisper, which I think winds up making a huge difference. (Usually to the Human League's advantage, though I think there were plenty of Human League moments where Oakley's power seemed sort of incongruous: "Don't You Want Me" even seems to be one of them.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 18:03 (twenty-three years ago)

If you combine the best tunes of "604" and "Light And Magic" you've got an all time classic. As they are now, too much filler.

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never heard any synth-pop that's as gorgeous, electrifying, and flat out massive sounding as 604. Dare sounds limp and useless in comparison.

― xnelio (xnelio), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 20:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I often like 'em, but I can't stand Seventeen. Then again, I like the Human League every now and then, but wouldn't buy any of their albums. So yeah, maybe they're one of a kind!

― Tijn Gilissen, Wednesday, 12 March 2003 21:40 (twenty-three years ago)

my fave Ladytron tracks are all from '604' still, 'The Way That I Found You', 'Discotrax', 'Playgirl' etc. - in fact 'Light & Magic' is somewhat disappointing in comparison in that it goes a bit darker and harder and loses the charm of the first album to an extent - '604' is one of my favourite 5 albums of the last 5 years now - definitely classic status

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 22:01 (twenty-three years ago)

do Ladytron have any songs other than the divine "seventeen"?

Ladytron also has a video for Playgirl, from the first album.

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 23:10 (twenty-three years ago)

How can you not think Mira Aroyo is one of the coolest people ever? Human Genetics PhD from Oxford and all.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 23:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Ladytron are the new Visage

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Ladytron are the female Komputer, for christ's sake. Don't even mention the League.

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 23:31 (twenty-three years ago)

There are several Electroclash bands out there that are considerably better than Ladytron.

The best Electroclash track I have heard so far is "Candy Girl" by Soviet.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 23:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, Human League have released three absolutely excellent albums since 1990, all of which have been largely overlooked (OK, "Octopus" spawned a couple of deserved UK Top 10 singles at least)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

There are several Electroclash bands out there that are considerably better than Ladytron.

you forgot to name these bands, and explain why better. also you forgot to acknowledge that Ladytron are nothing to do with electroclash anyway (so they say themselves) - i mean its like calling dance music pop music or something stupid.

meanwhile, i'd forgotten how dud 'Octopus' is...

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Tiga & Zyntherius, Soviet (already mentioned "Candy Girl", Green Velvet, Circ

Because they sound even more 1982 than Ladytron do, and good Electroclash is about sounding as if nothing happened since 1982.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

What makes you so much more qualified to define what electroclash is than everybody else?

― man, Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Geir likes Green Velvet!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Geir this is a pleasant surprise, I would not have expected that at all.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd like Ladytron more if they'd stop whispering. They need to go to Phil Oakey's Voice School For Overwraught Robots.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I saw the last stop of their tour on a whim this past Sat night. Oddly enough they had hired a session bassist and drummer and kept playing their songs faster and faster and ended up sounding more like a new take on Stereolab and less like what little Ladytron I'd heard. Oh yeah and they did four encores, the last being an avril-esque cover of "Oops Oh My". It was massively silly.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Or what little human league I'd heard

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Girl group for indie scenesters.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:50 (twenty-three years ago)

really? i thought that was Tiger Trap

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I like 'em both but I don't post to these threads as such comparisons are strictly for rockcrit style guides

― Millar (Millar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:54 (twenty-three years ago)

There were indie scenesters there who were six in 1993.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 13 March 2003 00:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I saw Ladytron a couple of weeks ago at the Camden monarch; they sounded like bad Classix Nouveaux. Really dull, not pop at all. Much better (& certainly much more pop) were the support combo Vic-20, who actually *do* sound like 1st LP Depeche Mode. Great songs, great sound. And apparently irony-free too.

― harveyw (harveyw), Thursday, 13 March 2003 10:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Ladytron seem to struggle live for some reason but i dont like Vic-20 from what i've heard (couple of tracks) half as much as the 'tron - aforementioned tracks from '604' are the EPITOMY of good pop music as far as i'm concerned - and 'Seventeen' and 'Blue Jeans' also fit that bill, certainly more POP than ELECTROCLASH - people need to get over such rigid perceptions of what makes what music what style

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 13 March 2003 10:12 (twenty-three years ago)

good Electroclash is about sounding as if nothing happened since 1982

no future in the scene then...

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 13 March 2003 10:13 (twenty-three years ago)

The past ought to be the future for music.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 13 March 2003 10:47 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.