Tag: ladytron

Worst (mainstream) album cover of 2008

~ Inquisitor

I can pretty much tell you what it’s going to be already: Velocifero by Ladytron (link to Amazon).

It’s really awful, isn’t it? The inner art is better and the spine is OK at least, so it’s not a dead loss. HMV and Virgin “zavvi” are hiding the album deep in the racks and only Fopp appears brave enough to show the thing in its front-facing new albums section, so it does look like it’s not going to sell very much offline. What’s worse is that it’s a pretty good album and deserves a whole lot better.

Still, might sell a bit on iTunes.

(The mainstream exception in the title is for stuff where by definition the covers are appalling: garage bands and a whole lot of punk and metal. Ladytron, however, are on Nettwerk, who should know better.)

Music matters

~ Inquisitor
  • Still very much enjoying on a regular basis Neon Neon (Stainless Style, a rather lovely 80s-influenced concept album about John deLorean by Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip), M83 (Saturdays=Youth, now with more vocals and yet much better than Before The Dawn Heals Us) and Nine Inch Nails (The Slip, a new Nine Inch Nails album). If you haven’t downloaded The Slip yet, now is the time to do so.
  • The new Ladytron (Velocifero) is pretty decent. Not Witching Hour quality, but well worth your time. There was a crap-quality Myspace stream, but not any more. Album’s officially out at the beginning of June and I shall be buying.
  • The Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip album features a hilarious and unexpected Dizzee Rascal backhand and a tribute to Tommy Cooper but an inferior – less spontaneous, I feel – rerecorded version of Thou Shalt Always Kill, which is a shame. It also sounds really odd on my PC, so I need to work out over the next few days if it’s my system (I’m playing most of my music ReplayGained with foobar2000, files encoded as lame 3.97 -V2, to a pair of Sennheiser open-backed headphones plugged into the high-quality stereo output port of my Envy24-chipset sound card; must try on Xbox->hi-fi and original CD->hi-fi) or if it’s just bad production. Still, good stuff on there.
    • Edit after listening to the CD in my separates system: Nah, it’s just really bad mastering compression – Scroobius’s vocal clips obviously through the spoken word intro and it gets worse from there. You can make “loud” albums that don’t sound wrong – Primal Scream XTRMNTR, for example, an exhilarating rush of an album – but it’s just bad for this album.
  • I’m still getting used to Portishead’s Third. But it’s really growing on me. (Machine Gun really was an odd choice for a first single, wasn’t it? Damn good though.)
  • Went to the last Triptych gig a few weeks ago – Mogwai and pals in the Tramway in Glasgow. Mogwai left my ears ringing for pretty much the next day. The new album material they played is, well, new Mogwai material and that’s always fine by me. Malcolm Middleton really surprised me; absolutely fantastic set. Only one completely duff act, which out of nine bands is pretty good going. Nice Rock Action sampler CD, too.
  • All this good music out there, even some with tunes and poppy and glorious, and none of it’s selling that much (although Portishead’s chart position is pleasingly steady.) Meanwhile, Scooter are #1 in the albums chart based on some shitty advertisements on music TV and an audience of idiots. There’s a lesson there, but I don’t think I like it.