3. LadytronWitching Hour
I picked Witching Hour for two reasons. I think I’ve actually listened to Crystal World by [Helen] Marnie [Ladytron singer and keyboardist] more, and I couldn’t decide whether to pick that album or this one, because I love Crystal World. But I have a really distinct memory from the mid-2000s, and it must have been on the Witching Hour tour. It was just after El Hombre Trajeado had stopped, but before I’d thought about doing a solo thing, and I remember clearly watching Ladytron play and thinking, I really like them, I’d really like to make music with Helen. That must have been ten, 11 years ago. That was the show, and that was the album, that popped into my head when I first thought about doing Telling The Trees – that’s the root of this whole project. Helen was the first person I contacted. If she’d said no [to ‘Sweet Dreams’], I probably wouldn’t have done the record.
Also, Witching Hour is when they started playing a bit with more organic instrumentation as well. They’d done that a bit in ‘Blue Jeans’ on Light & Magic, and I liked that more organic feel. There’s live drums on Witching Hour, there’s guitar, but it still sounds like Ladytron. And Helen’s voice is incredible. Brian Eno said Ladytron were the best of English pop music? Really? Fucking hell. They pull it off.
