Early on, Pitchfork contributor Stephen Troussé off-handedly described Ladytron as the second coming of Elastica. It was a good enough comparison for me to remember it a decade later. Like Elastica, Ladytron are a co-ed band built on detachment, androgyny, black clothing, and tons of hooks. Also like Elastica, they were dogged at the start as being vacant fashionistas photocopying the past. A few blinks of the eye later, and Ladytron have been around for a dozen years, and the requisite 17-track Best of 00-10 compilation feels earned. (An expanded version adds 16 more tracks and a huge booklet of photos; depending on your interest in the group, one or the other will certainly qualify as all the Ladytron you'll need.)
Out of the gate, Ladytron dovetailed with and were lumped in with electroclash. They certainly preceded the term, but the group benefited from it and earned quite a bit early attention on the back of it. At the time, they got by on charm, low-rent production, and a few winks. Songs like "Paco!" and "He Took Her to a Movie" feel like defining electroclash documents-- the deadpan vocals, the fairly rudimentary comments on consumerism and sexual politics. Part of the goal, and this was an epidemic in electroclash, was to coat everything in a layer of irony. Trying hard, ambition, giving a shit-- these weren't desired qualities. Cheapness, disposability, peacocking-- these were in style. By that measurement, Ladytron succeeded-- only two tracks from their debut LP, 604, are featured here: "Discotraxx" and "Playgirl", a couple of gossipy girltalk songs, observational character sketches that draw different conclusions about young women growing up quickly. (Compilers: "Commodore Rock" was jobbed.)
It came as a surprise when Ladytron went right out and grew up. Stepping up their tempos, sharpening their rhythms and low-ends, and acquiring a sheen of professionalism, they took a step toward longevity on their next record, Light & Magic (2002). The results weren't as strong as 604, but they carved a way out of what looked like a trendy dead-end. Darkening the tone of their songs and providing more muscle to their sound, Ladytron graduated from a concept into a band. And yet from the record only "Seventeen"-- a lament that could have been penned for the girls who grew up too fast on 604-- is truly first-tier.
The band itself may have gotten that message: Evolve or risk being left out. They evolved: The leap on their next album, Witching Hour, was stark. Bottle service and velvet ropes are entirely absent; a confident, poised blend of goth, shoegaze, and rock instead characterizes the album-- by far their career peak. It's no surprise that five of the 17 tracks here, including arguably its three best ("Destroy Everything You Touch", "Soft Power", "International Dateline"), are from that album.
Ladytron continued their morphing into theater-rock on 2008's Velocifero; the three singles included here-- "Ghosts", "Tomorrow", and "Runaway"-- find them perilously close to Killers territory, but they're talked down from the ledge by Helen Marnie's vocals. With a more demonstrative or earnest singer in tow, the band may have been tempted to graft itself to songs that aim for scope over subtlety. A sense of humor and keying in on specific images or lyrical ideas have always suited Ladytron, so a drift toward more big-tent songs would be unlikely to yield anything other than vague plaudits.
It wouldn't be a 21st century compilation without a few add-ons. There's a new song, "Ace of Hz", and a cover of Death in June's "Little Black Angel". Both are decent songs that won't raise eyebrows tacked onto the back end of a band's best work, but would never be considered career highlights on their own. Some of the playfulness of their early days is missed on Best of 00-10, the loose analog charm of their earliest songs would have given the collection a little more lift. (How odd would it have sounded a decade ago to say a Ladytron comp would suffer from being too leaden?) But these 17 songs collectively are a hell of a strong argument for why you're still reading about Ladytron now instead of, say, Miss Kittin or Fischerspooner or Peaches.
