The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureMusicAlbum reviews

Ladyhawke – Wild Things

Ladyhawke – Wild Things | Album review
21 June 2016
Abi Jenkins
Abi Jenkins
Avatar
Abi Jenkins
21 June 2016

Music review

Abi Jenkins

Wild Things

★★★★★

Release date

3rd June 2016

Highlights

Money to Burn, The River, Wild Things, Golden Girl

Links

Twitter Facebook Website

On the surface, the third album from New Zealander Phillipa “Pip” Brown is an altogether more sedate and less spiky offering than 2012’s Anxiety, but when listened to loud this more mature and measured sound still fizzes with the incessant, peppy synth undertones that fans of her electro-pop roots will no doubt love.

None of the ten new tracks of Wild Things are hands-in-the-air, shout-out-loud anthemic, but that’s no surprise. Instead, what the album does boast is an almost constant supply of arms-by-your-side, shoulders swaying, summery electro-pop goodness that shimmers with a muted but somehow still pleasingly sweet and reassuringly polished rhythm.

Ethereal, dreamlike title track Wild Things, for example, puts the listener right there in the middle of that field or that forest, with best friends, dancing round that fire, swaying, laughing, and just generally revelling in being alive. Golden Girl’s poppy, choppy acoustic guitar riff contrasts with the warm, incessant muted electric guitar undertones of the soaring Wonderland, while sultry closer Dangerous gives tantalising glimpses of past Ladyhawke offerings: its clear 70s disco influence managing to feel like the cheeky older sister of Brown’s past sound reliving its more rebellious youth.

While undoubtedly still an enjoyable record, it’s fair to say a certain spark has gone from the Ladyhawke sound. While this may well be due to Brown’s blessedly more settled and less troubled personal life, which has been well documented, it’s something that is definitely felt musically. As a listener this isn’t necessarily a negative, but previous jagged edges would appear to have been carefully rounded off, resulting in an album that, while an easy and enjoyable listen, never quite seems to reach the crest of its potential crescendo.

Wild Things wraps everything from love, to obsession, to trust fund kids in a shimmery, synth-heavy blanket of electro-pop that, fittingly, wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack of a particularly summery series of Made in Chelsea, and not in a bad way. “This is what a love song sounds like,” declares opener A Love Song and it feels like this is what a matured, happier and less intense Ladyhawke album sounds like, albeit one that is still pleasingly catchy, almost in spite of itself. The question for the listener is, is it for better or, as some may well say, for worse?

★★★★★

Abi Jenkins

Wild Things is released on 3rd June 2016, for further information or to order the album visit here.

Watch the video for A Love Song here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Album reviews

Vance Joy – Nation of Two

★★★★★
Mark Mukasa
Read More

Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending

★★★★★
Ella Navarro
Read More

Noel Gallagher – Who Built the Moon?

★★★★★
Ed Barnes
Read More

Taylor Swift – Reputation

★★★★★
Laura Boyle
Read More

The Killers – Wonderful Wonderful

★★★★★
George Kazakos
Read More

Haim – Something to Tell You 

★★★★★
Amber Medland
Read More

Kendrick Lamar – Damn

★★★★★
Mark Mukasa
Read More

Keston Cobblers Club – Almost Home

★★★★★
Alex White
Read More

Jamiroquai – Automaton

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Music review

Abi Jenkins

Wild Things

★★★★★

Release date

3rd June 2016

Highlights

Money to Burn, The River, Wild Things, Golden Girl

Links

Twitter Facebook Website

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Hide in Mayfair: Dabbous raises the bar of informal fine dining with his new restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Vaccines and Whenyoung at Alexandra Palace
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Every Day
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Project Gastronomía: How will Londoners eat in 2015? A symposium on gastronomy and multisensory design
    Food & Drinks
  • Tribeca Film Festival 2018: On the red carpet with the stars of Westworld season 2
    Cinema
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Hinds at Electric Brixton
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Faceless
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Hinds at Electric Brixton
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Half Breed
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Education, Education, Education at Shoreditch Town Hall
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall
    ★★★★★
    Live music

Instagram

Something is wrong. Response takes too long or there is JS error. Press Ctrl+Shift+J or Cmd+Shift+J on a Mac.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • New London restaurant openings and pop-ups
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Subscribe
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Game of Thrones: What will happen next?
No Home Movie | Movie review