A decade into their career, Liverpool’s electro-pop auteurs Ladytron continue to evolve and impress. “Ambulances,” the second song from their forthcoming fifth album, Gravity the Seducer (out Sept. 13), takes their crystalline sound in a dramatic direction. It premieres exclusively here.
Synthetic strings weave circles around a staccato backbeat, while Helen Marnie delivers a typically breathy hook: “If I should ever let you go / I’ll never want to know why.” After a dramatic bridge, the track crescendos in one of the most orchestral-sounding Ladytron arrangements to date.
“The album is pretty diverse, however, yes, the majority does have quite an orchestral feel to it,” Ladytron’s Marnie tells SPIN. “‘Ambulances’ is a song close to my heart and I wanted it to sound ethereal and otherworldly. The album as a whole sounds lush and resonates warmth with full on organs and strings and soaring vocals.”
Hunt attributes the more ornate compositions to a recording process that was relaxed, took place in the Kentish countryside, and was not at all driven by a need to return to the road. “Velocifero [the band’s previous release] was quite a hard, punchy, album, and we felt having had some time out that we had the opportunity to make a more cinematic, emotional record,” Marnie says. “Going into the studio was about building upon what was already there. The tracks seem to gel and flow, and thematically sit well together.”
“I feel like we’ve graduated,” Marnie adds. “From [Ladytron’s first album] 604 when we were just kids, it’s all been a learning process and we’ve grown up a lot. I think we’re finally where we want to be.”
“Ambulances” will be available via iTunes beginning June 21, and the album is already available for pre-order. Look for a video for the previously-released single “White Elephant” coming soon.
