Since the band’s beginning in 1998, Ladytron have evolved from making trendy electroclash with a tongue-in-cheek asexual shtick on 2000’s 604 to the ambitious and cathartic Witching Hour in 2005. But after putting out a record as brilliant as Witching Hour, where do you go next? Velocifero seems to be Ladytron’s way of saying they don’t know.
Instead of consciously one-upping themselves, they’ve settled for going with the flow – knowing that as serious musicians and clever lyricists, whatever they came up with would be a passable "next album."
And it was. Velocifero is full of chest-shaking, fuzzy keyboard lines and instrumentation that ranges from dissonant organ to industrial noise. Its lyrics – some of which are in band member Mira Aroyo’s native language of Bulgarian – are poetic and filled with sharp imagery.
On the other hand, it lacks the intricacies that suggest Ladytron put much thought beyond intuition into this album. While the album is brimming with emotional lyrics, those are stuck in barely intelligible verses while inane monotony reigns in the choruses – most of which repeat the same phrase about 80 times. The song "Runaway," for example, contains the lines "Every red eye that you cross / makes the next feel serious … every silver shell that you crush will be enough." They’re overshadowed, however, by the annoyingness of the chorus "My little runaway, my little runaway, my little runaway, my little runaway."
The musical arrangements, too, seem to take one theme per song and run with it, leading to little development throughout each number. And while that might have worked if the lyrics were setting the mood, instead it comes off as a lack of inspiration.
Velocifero, for all its faults, though, is a solid, listenable chill-out album. But it won’t change your life, either.
