★★★★★
Anybody familiar with 32-year old Phillipa Brown's debut will no doubt be aware of the presence of more than a few '80s perspectives on it. Ladyhawke was retro writ large and most - if not all - of the album's charm was contained in the fact that it wasn't paying homage to a decade or being self-consciously evocative of the decade. Instead it was written and recorded in order to re-create the golden era of synth-pop in mind...
- www.state.ie
2012-06-28
★★★★★
There is life after--and before--the Eighties. On her 2008 debut, Ladyhawke (New Zealander Phillipa Brown) was a flaming Reagan-era synth-pop revivalist, but on Anxiety, she has cranked up her guitars and given her keyboards a jittery New Wave makeover. The result is a buzzsaw-sharp pop-rock album, full of hard-charging hooks, with one foot toe-tapping in 1978 and the other planted firmly in 2012. Listen to 'Anxiety': Related • Photos: Random Notes
- www.rollingstone.com
2012-06-07
★★★★★
A lot's happened since we last heard from Ladyhawke. There's been a General Election. Plan B did the soul singer thing. Nicola Roberts released a solo album. Some genius made chocolate Philadelphia. All that and more has changed the UK's outlook forever in the four years since New Zealander Pip Brown released her self-titled debut album. While it's reductive to glance over what her 2008 synth-loving contemporaries are up to now, we're going to do it anyway...
- www.nme.com
2012-06-07
★★★★★
It is a brave move indeed on Pip Brown's part to call her second album Anxiety, for that is just what seems to have afflicted this most dangerous of records for any artist. In the build up to its release, Green has seen the street date moved from pillar to post and back again, for no especially obvious reason. But it's a happy state of affairs to be able to report this doesn't reflect on the music in any way...
- www.musicomh.com
2012-06-04
★★★★★
If I were the betting type, I'd have wagered my first-born and several of my vital organs on Ladyhawke's second coming Anxiety being a Pop Supernova. Not just the finest Planet Pop could furnish as Earth dies screaming in this year of the 20 'n' the 12; but an album that would help fire the lighthouse that would guide our zombie-fried souls back to spiritual Nirvana. Yes, one had high hopes. Perhaps unrealistically so...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-06-04
★★★★★
Even a staunch Ladyhawke supporter could be forgiven for approaching this record with caution. For a start, there's the title. Calling an album Anxiety hardly smacks of self-confidence, especially when that album is the follow-up to a well-regarded debut. Critics praised the first Ladyhawke LP when it came out in 2008; pop buffs wanted it to sell better than it eventually did. Nor is the title entirely tongue-in-cheek...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2012-06-04
★★★★★
In terms of intelligent modern pop records, it wouldn't seem that far-fetched to imagine Pip Brown's fine 2008 debut sitting having dinner with Annie's Anniemal, glowering through heavily mascaraed eyelashes and muttering 'Why the f**k aren't we massive when Ke$ha is?'...
- drownedinsound.com
2012-05-31
★★★★★
When you put a more indy-fied spin on an incandescent pop artist, their credibility is, somehow, easily enhanced by endless remixes. Some pop artists even seem in danger of not existing wholly in their own music, depending on this remix market for critical acceptance. It's a curious symbiosis between the star's unfettered product and the DJ's response--a cultural dialogue that remains a constant fascination. For starters, there is something infinitely likable about Ladyhawke...
- www.prefixmag.com
2012-05-31
★★★★★
But for a simple accident of human history, Ladyhawke's debut record could have been one of 1984's most ubiquitous Top Forty smashes. Instead, it simply but zealously wormed its way into the hearts of 2008's more exploratory indie rockers...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2012-05-24
Loading...
