Anxiety

As Blacks Kids, Klaxons, Little Boots and many others will testify, four years is a lifetime in music these days. It’s a thought that must have occupied ‘80s-inspired one woman band Ladyhawke’s mind on the run-in to the release of the tellingly-titled Anxiety. The style here may be similar to ‘08’s self-titled debut, but there’s more of a rock feel this time around, with the guitars turned on occasion up to 11, as on ‘Girl Like Me’. Lyrically, Pip Brown opens up a little more too, and when she croons, “I take a pill to help me through the day/ I stay inside until I feel okay” on the title track, it feels like a proper, career-defining moment. To match the slinky robot rock highs (‘The Quick & The Dead’) there are also a few lows: for example, the Chas and Dave Joanna on ‘Sunday Drive’ mars a great indie pop song. While it never quite reaches the heady heights of ‘My Delirium’, Anxiety is a solid second offering.