Ladytron remembers the 80's in a way that no American ever could. Over on this side of the ocean, the 80's ended — and not quite with a bang, either. In many corners of the world, they did not. No one from Holland or Germany or Belgium (where Ladytron singer Mira Aroyo is from) will be confused if you start talking about Cyndi Lauper or English Beat. You can hum them a tune, and they will have heard it on the radio recently. Big-time commercial radio, even. Not some specialized 80's station. This goes a long way toward explaining Ladytron, as well as countless other bands that seem to have built their careers on taking ancient electronic instruments, many of which have names that end in three palindromic numbers, and several of which that were almost certainly manufactured by Casio, and giving them a dignity that could only spring from honest affection.
Ladytron's previous album, 604, combined these frankly dated sounds with moments of gossamer loveliness and well-produced tunefulness, making the comparison to Stereolab all but inevitable. Light and Magic takes a step back, or down, or... some damn direction... and lets the same sounds speak for themselves. The arrangements are often frankly goofy, consisting of little more than silly lilting synth lines and dirty, bargain basement beats. And yet, more than once they manage to pull a certain power and energy out of these instruments. They seem to have an encyclopedic working knowledge of what such instruments are and are not capable of, and the way they work within their limitations is at times a breathtaking balancing act. They dance along the knife-edge of self-parody and total irrelevance, but they never topple over. I'm unsure of exactly how much to praise this, but I'm certain it takes a weird, special sort of talent.
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