ION review: Ladyhawke - Wild Things

Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, has made major adjustments to her lifestyle and subsequently her sound since the project’s energetic self-titled debut in 2008 and it's emotionally-driven follow-up Anxiety in 2012. The new full-length studio album, titled Wild Things is a shimmering piece of expertly-produced pop music that is disappointingly anything but wild. The instrumentation is interesting, well-structured and very catchy. Producer Tommy English nailed the desired sounds of modern, chart-topping indie-pop. Lyrically, however, the album is contrived and uninteresting. Cliché after cliché, the songs waltz along with inconsequential melodies. “Let it roll, let it roll like a new born soul” - Pip’s voice chimes along to a sparkling, tightly composed track of layered digital synths and clean guitar lines.  “This is love, this is love, this is everything.” “There’s no way up, there’s no way down. You stole my heart but you throw it around.” It goes on like this throughout the entire record. Sonically, the songs differ and flow, shaping it up to be a well-constructed piece of music. Unfortunately, Pip’s pretty but dull lyricisms are weak to the point of ruining the aesthetic of the record.

Wild Things, as told by Pip, is representative of a new optimism looking forward in her sobriety -- a far cry from 2008’s Ladyhawke, whose carefree guitar-riffs and edgy vocal melodies lead to smashingly successful tours while ripping up charts in the UK and North America. Reportedly, there was a near-complete Ladyhawke record of dark, moody pop songs before being scrapped for this new, bubbly direction. “I’d finished touring the second record, and I was pretty much trying to write the next album straight away,” Pip explained in one recent interview. "So it wasn’t an entire album — it was eight or nine songs. It was close to an album! And if I wanted to, I could’ve gotten them mixed and mastered and released, but it made me feel sick. And that’s not to say the songs were bad, I do like some of the songs, but the lyrics and the sound of the music was just so dark. And I wanted to feel happy. And I was sick of feeling like crap and it coming through in my music, so that’s why I scrapped it.” Of course we are happy to hear about the artist's recovery, but one can’t help wishing that some of the depth that pairs with depression had made it onto this new record. All in all, we wish Pip Brown the best in health and happiness while touring Wild Things while we continue to bump Paris Is Burning at our 2000's throwback parties.