Rocktrospectiva: The Sophisticated "Withching Hour" Turns 20

Released on 3 October 2005, "Witching Hour" was the third studio album by English electronic music band Ladytron. The album was promoted by four singles: "Sugar", "Destroy Everything You Touch", "Weekend" and "Soft Power". The album has been acclamied by critics since. 

Ladytron began working on demos for Witching Hour immediately after concluding Light & Magic tour with a homecoming gig in Liverpool in September 2003, where they were supported by Franz Ferdinand. Within a few months, they had mapped out the entire record. They began recording the album in April 2004 with Jim Abbiss at Elevator Studios in Liverpool, with later additional recording taking place at Sahara Sound in London. 

On the first day of the recording sessions, however, their UK label Telstar Records had gone into administration. Their US label, Emperor Norton, also had problems: the company was purchased by Rykodisc in 2004 and was then shut down later that year, with Rykodisc inheriting its back catalogue. By June 2004, the recording sessions were finished and the album only required mixing and mastering. The band announced on 7 December 2004 that they signed to Island Records.

Musically, Witching Hour has been described as synth-pop, electronic rock, post-punk, and shoegaze. Most of the bassy riffs on the record are a Roland SH-2 or a Korg MS-20, Korg MS-10 through Electro Harmonix boxes,  Farfisa organs and Solina string machines and a load of the producer's toys.

The approach goes back to the whole Eno/Bowie Low thing – the treatments are as important as the synths. We like to confuse synths and guitars quite a lot–there are some things people hear they assume is a guitar that's a synth and vice versa. On the last album, there were guitars all over 'Cease2xist' and a few of the other songs, but they were treated in a way that people didn't recognize them".

Four singles were released from Witching Hour: "Sugar", "Destroy Everything You Touch", "Weekend" and "Soft Power" in 2007. "International Dateline" was issued as a promotional single in 2005. "Destroy Everything You Touch" reached number 42 on the UK singles chart, the highest position a Ladytron single has reached to date. It also became the band's best known song. The album was also promoted by two music videos: "Sugar" (directed by Andy Roberts) and "Destroy Everything You Touch" (directed by Adam Bartley). The unfinished video for "International Dateline" was rediscovered and finished by Daniel Hunt in 2012, and premiered on 22 February 2013.

Witching Hour received positive reviews from music critics by described the album as "the most urgent and immediate of their career" and also as a "quantum leap record".  Ladytron's move toward a mix of harsher electro and lighter pop elements will find this a welcome progression, and seemingly a natural one, too". It's the band's most sophisticated, and best, work to date".

 

Witching Hour Track List:  

 

1. High Rise

2. Destroy Everything You Touch

3. International Dateline

4. Soft Power

5. CMYK

6. AMTV

7. Sugar

8. Fighting In Built Up Areas

9. The Last One Standing

10. Weekend

11. Beauty*2

12. Whitelightgenerator

13. All The Way