Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We require courage to see into the lives of others and witness their hurt, their moments of broken fragile nature, and yet it only takes the understanding of compassion, the truth of empathy, to set in motion the trajectory of Time’s Arrow back on its rightful and honest path.
Art enters our lives, not just by physical observance, but by a relief of osmosis, to find someone who has never been touched by a song, a line from a poet’s sonnet, a marble statue representing a state of grace between humanity and the heavens, is to come face to face with true and utter contemptible blankness, the arrow of time is not just off balance, it is wildly off the mark.
It is with a solid foundation of belief that Liverpool founded and formed Ladytron return to the fore with their seventh studio album, the persuasive and gifted release of Time’s Arrow.
We are more fortunate perhaps than most, even if we don’t realise it, and we have the ability to see the other side of the coin in even the most direct of assaults on our person, in our fragility we might glimpse strength, in being disposed of we see a new path open before us, and in captivity, we can dream of freedom. It is the themes that open before the listener, the structure of synths and upbeat observation that tackles the moments of exhilaration that make Ladytron’s part in 2023 such a welcome dynamic, and one sure to be a favourite for many who immerse themselves into the music.
Time’s Arrow, whether in the fierce contention of British philosophy, or even the words of a respected novelist in which to see the slipstream of life from another’s vantage point, and across tracks such as the opener City Of Angels, the excellent allusion to melancholy in Misery Remember Me, The Night, and Saragosa Sea with its influential sway of voice and timing, that slipstream pierces the heart of the matter, the target of many is shattered, and the release is its freedom
In a time when all around us feels as though it the result of poisonous revenge, of stark reminders of the infallibility pushed on us by others who seek to destroy rather than nurture, to find ourselves in the belief that our minds can be altered for good and the intoxication of seeing the results of kindness, to feel the synth and psychedelic pulse of Ladytron is to feel in capable and loving hands.
Let the music guide, refuse to be the blank state of emotion, for in Time’s Arrow, you can pierce the shell of any who deny the wonder of what it is to feel.
Ladytron release Time’s Arrow on January 20th.
Ian D. Hall