Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke Review

Bam! Kazam! Ladyhawke! A superhero for the noughties. Beamed direct to you from the '80s.

To be completely fair to Pip Brown - as little Miss Ladyhawke is better known to her friends and loved ones - in many ways this record sounds like it has less chance of working than a mortgage broker. Cat obsessed kookery and unabashed Fleetwood Maccery? Pass me my vat au poisson and my salmon shooting cannon.

Yet, to the despair of the legions of fish-in-a-barrel enthusiasts lining up for a three hour bonanza of dead marine life, this eponymous debut is really quite good. Even after what seems like an endless stream of debut records from sisters doing it for themselves (Santogold, Lykke Li, Ida Maria etc. etc.) Ladyhawke has made something that may well trump the lot of them. ...full text Like Keith Richards, heavy metal and the clap, the ’80s refuse to die. There’s been bands trying to revive them since about 12.30am on January 1, 1990. Many Kings Of Keytar have back-combed themselves into a lather, donned the skinny pink tie and struck the Le Bon yacht stance in the name of recreating the Decade That Shame Forgot. But all the hairspray blinded them to one important point: sounding like the ’80s is knowing retro cool in excelsis; looking like the ’80s makes you a pointless revivalist who should be skinned alive and buried in the same unmarked grave as Justin Hawkins and The Dead 60s.
...full text Pip Brown certainly knows one end of a pop tune from the other. Like Santogold, Lykke Li and numerous other solo singers seemingly incapable of actually selling any records, Brown, as Ladyhawke, has set her controls for the heart of the American Apparel-friendly hipster blog scene, but what sets her apart are those tunes. Big tunes. Big, lovable and expertly crafted tunes....full text