Singles

Ladyhawke - Back Of The Van

Martin Goodhead 21/05/2009

Rating: 2/5

Ladyhawke's an eighties princess film starring Dutch acting ledge Rutger Hauer, who was earlier in several Paul Verhoven films - ie. Spletters- full of ultra-violence, drag-racing and dissections of youthful mating rituals. They were punk rock cinema. Ladytron are a thrilling and chilly electro-pop retro-futurist proposition with chords-patterns that make you heart skip with a seductive Nico-voiced lead vocalist.

I don't believe Ladyhawke's a lady(is everyone a lady these days?), 'she' might indeed be a secret government gm engineered hawk but mostly sounds like Mark Greaney (of early noughties Irish drama-rock warblers JJ72, kids) being noshed by a walnut grinder, duetting in the xenomania chamber of shame with Brandon Flowers's old stubble. At least they've both got fustian Springsteen stadium rock as background accompaniment to see them through. As a wise Captian Picard net meme once asked 'what is this shit'- is it entertainment, art? Actually it's the 2.35 Radio Z slot between the new Akon and Lily Allen. Lady Gaga may sound pre-op but at least has a new-york 'house-trained' production team behind her It's the sound of now, ie. the sound of 1983's smash hits for Simple Minds meets Stevie Nicks aficionados that threatens, with a come hither glossy couture sultriness, to charm the airwaves but at the last moves and shoots with the lips and footwork of an antipodean bar-boy masked in lipstick, and with all the progressiveness of -Danni Minogue.

Release date: 18/05/2009