Ladyhawke - Wild Things (New CD)

People wonder why there”s always a massive gap between my albums,”” says Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, the one-woman synth-pop act from New Zealand. The reason is both complicated and easy. The simple explanation: “”I”ve never released anything I”m not proud of. That”s important to me.””Those instincts have served Brown well, starting with her self-titled debut in 2008, which peaked at No. 16 on the U.K. album charts and No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand”s album charts. Ladyhawke”s more aurally angular follow-up, Anxiety, charted in the U.K.”s Top 40 and in Australia”s and New Zealand”s Top 20, respectively. Brown”s conviction to authenticity led her on a journey starting in 2013. Over three years, she scrapped a full Ladyhawkealbum (“”The material didn”t feel like me. It felt too dark or something””). Once reliant on alcohol to surmount social anxiety (“”I”d never done a sober show in my life until last December””), she quit drinking and focused on getting healthy. Then she welcomed that newfound clarity by crafting her latest release, the blissed-out Wild Things. “”This album has given me a sense of purpose. Even if it took me months or years to get that purpose, as soon as I finished that record it was like an unbelievable weight was lifted off my shoulders,”” she says. You can hear that freedom in Wild Things”unabashed exuberance, a powerful, vibrant expression of life itself. “”Everything I wrote was all the stuff I was going through. I got it out of my system, exorcised it from my soul.

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