Gravity the Seducer

Liverpool’s exciting synth-pop explorers head into airy mountain vistas with their fifth album, 2011’s excellent *Gravity the Seducer*. Each of their releases has brought their sound to new conclusions and this one is no exception. The dark mysticism of “White Gold” alone is reason to stop and listen. Its moody swaths of synths burn like blistering light through the ice caverns, while “Ace of Hz” turns even the group’s pop moves into ethereal meditations. “Ritual” bounces onto the dancefloor with an ominous hangover. “Moon Palace” sounds like a pop tune deliberately frozen over and thawed anew. “Melting Ice” continues this theme, with a vibe that’s pure Siberia for the dancefloor. (Nothing melting here.) The group’s electro-clash Euro-disco is a powerful weapon; however, the band are hesitant to go for an easy score. “90 Degrees” moves with a haunted mood. “Aces High” uses the melody for “Ace of Hz” as an instrumental to pull the entire album together as a conceptual whole.

For the Liverpool mainstays' fifth album, they've removed the cinder block that Velocifero applied to the gas pedal, opting for a floatier, airy feel that often sounds as if its creators' feet are barely touching the ground.

Like a modern-day, gender-flipped answer to Roxy Music, Liverpudlian electropop quartet Ladytron has a taste for gorgeous synthesizer melodies and a romanticism that manages to be heart-on-sleeve and icily detached at the same time. (Ladytron even winked at the influence on the cover of 2003’s Softcore Jukebox, in…

With the release of their ‘Best Of 00-10’ earlier this year, [a]Ladytron[/a] gave themselves an opportunity to begin a new chapter in their career.

Discover Gravity the Seducer by Ladytron released in 2011. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.

In March, Ladytron put out their 10-year greatest hits collection, Best of Ladytron: 00-10, and now they're releasing their fifth album, the band's most grandiose and formal album yet.

When Ladytron emerged at the start of the previous decade it was easy to write them off as electro chancers.

These songs are chilled just to the point where you can definitely taste the beginnings of freezer burn.

Are pioneers still enjoyable after they stop pioneering? Yes, answers <strong>Michael Hann</strong>

Perhaps no one has been doing it as long (or with such pedigree cosigns) as Ladytron.