Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch writeup for popheads top 100 of 2005

The synthesized sound is sometimes hard to interpret: it can exude coldness and warmth, closeness or distance, human artifice or machine abstraction. Ladytron, the British 4-piece synthpop band, were also very often misinterpreted in their contradictive images: they were always too rigid in style to act like a dance band, their two woman vocalists (who sound the opposite of one another) put them in pop conversations and out of "rock band" status, the intricacies and oddities of their music were lumped aside to fit them into an electroclash scene, and Mira's Bulgarian nationality was enough for the radio to refer to them as "the two Russian girls," possibly confusing them with t.a.t.u.. There was some Kraftwerk in their DNA, and bits of Joy Division (British critics love to point to Joy Division). After a sprawling electronic debut, a more pop-structured sophomore, and a tour where they supported then indie rock superstars Franz Ferdinand, Ladytron decided it was time to become a real proper rock band and dropped all techno pretense to make it obvious. For the recording of *Witching Hour* in spring 2004, they enlisted Jim Abbins on producer duty (who had produced Kasabian's "Club Foot" that year and would go on to produce for Arctic Monkeys' debut the following). There is little room to misinterpret *Witching Hour*. Its title evokes the cold of the night and gothic imagery. The drum machine loops were mostly replaced by live drumming, the fuzz of the guitar sharing equal spotlight with the cold synth melodies, and Helen singing all doom and gloom lyrics in her sweet voice, it was as much of a post-punk revival record as it was synthpop by way of 90s era of alt rock Depeche Mode. There was also shoegaze in there, but shoegaze with a pulse and manic paranoia, more akin to Curve and Garbage than My Bloody Valentine. After label issues and other problems, *Witching Hour* finally came out in fall 2005. NME called it "a record that rather makes one want to have sex." This website's whole coverage in the 2000s was British indie that sounded like this (but mostly more boring) but one guy heard a little too many synths and not enough lads on the mic and decided it was sex music. Wanker.

"Destroy Everything You Touch" is seen as the standout single thanks to its hooks, which are as immediate as its titular imperative. The song concerns a friend who's too afraid to lose what they've got, paradoxically closing themself from the outside world in the process. They have lost the feeling in their touch, and the narrator wants them to crash out and destroy, even subjecting herself as the target of their pent up feelings. Hardly sex music unless the sex music one wants is about pathetic pityfucks–I hope someone checked in with NME. Anyway, I love the "do not know what you steal" line in the chorus: what's being stolen is the presence of this person, withdrawn by themself. And the followup lines are a call to shakeup: if anyone agrees with your current condition, they're basically hastening your death, reflecting your own weapon back at you.

The song is also, quite simply, a banger. The post-chorus riffs are some of the hardest that Ladytron has put to tape, escalating the momentum even further. And if you like it, I'd recommend *Witching Hour* as a whole: you won't find 12 more bangers like this, but you'll find what is one of the benchmark releases of nocturnal electronica, an album which has traces all over album(s) by Crystal Castles, Grimes and Sky Ferreira. The good thing about Ladytron is that listening to them is still ethical, unlike 2/3 of those artists. There are great gems to be found in Ladytron's first four album run for any fan of electronic pop (TikTok even uncovered "Seventeen" a couple years ago), and there is no better starting point than *Witching Hour*.