Ladytron: 604

BY NICHOLAS WEBB

It's gotta be a sign of the times. With George W. Bush, DC '68, dead-set on bringing back the Reagan years, is it any wonder that a fresh crop of bands has sprung up to resurrect that era's signature sound? The new millennium is seeing the emergence of an entire scene of New Wave revivalists, bands that aren't afraid to whip out the big keyboards and party like it's 1981.

Unlike genre peer The Faint, whose matching matte-black outfits Ladytron apparently shares, the band doesn't modernize its sound with punk aggression—604 is pure gloss, all breathy female vocals and swelling keyboard pads. When the band is on, it hits a gently melodic synth-pop vibe that's strong enough to avoid cliché; the album's standout track, "Playgirl," is a swoony dance-in-your-bedroom romance that ranks up there with anything by Erasure or New Order. Similarly, the stilted melodies of "Ladybird" and "Another Breakfast With You" are insistent enough to transcend production that carefully mimics a dated sound.

The problem with Ladytron's scrupulously retro approach to synth-pop lies in the fact that it burdens the band with the genre's clichés—there are only so many things you can do with a "vintage" synthesizer that Kraftwerk didn't do better when it was fresh out of the box. The department store ode "Paco!" succeeds on the gleeful banality of Helen Marnie's vocals ("Ground floor: ladies' clothes, sportswear, stationary/First floor: kitchenware, furnishings, confectioneries"), but it's still treading the same ground as the Flying Lizards' "Money." "He Took Her To A Movie" lifts a melody from Kraftwerk's "The Model," but the move ends up sounding more like plagiarism than homage.

The band's devotion to its influences is admirable, but in the end, 604 adds nothing new to a 20-year-old formula. (Emperor Norton) —Nicholas Webb

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