Ladytron

The pixie-faced singers and cold, steely beats that color the foreground of Ladytron's future-forward songs led many to peg the group as part of the Electroclash movement in the early '00s. As that trend faded into the ether, however, songs like "Seventeen" and "Discotraxx" remained as relevant as ever, while the group's third album, the guitar-grazed Witching Hour, revealed a side that drops its previous synth-pop approach for gnarly noise rock ("Sugar") and hazy shoegaze melodies that shimmer like a sun-coated shoreline ("International Dateline").

Not that its synth-pop side was bad; as our Next Steps prove, Ladytron's first two albums feature some of the past decade's finest robo-pop jams.

Ladytron's been seen supporting everyone from the Chemical Brothers to Nine Inch Nails in recent years, but the group's rare live performances often take a backseat to its individual DJ gigs. One night of losing yourself in the latter is all it takes to understand the many influences that dot Ladytron's multi-layered compositions, including the classic electro cuts of the early '80s (the break-dance-ready "Turn It On," which sounds like a Cybotron B-side), slivers of ambient techno (the brief but captivating instrumental "Cmyk"), gloomy and grainy post-punk ("Soft Power"), and the Man vs. Machine music of Kraftwerk (the hypnotic hooks and icy, mechanical ramblings of "True Mathematics").

Speaking of DJs, our Deep Cuts show just how suitable Ladytron's songs are for remixes — including one by a former Smashing Pumpkin.

We know what you're thinking: what's James Iha — a guitar hero best known for his riff-raking role in Smashing Pumpkins — doing tossing a steady drum beat and shimmering synths at Ladytron? Indulging his love of cutting-edge dance music, that's what, right alongside a former Garbage/Primal Scream producer who fans the four-alarm electro fire of "Sugar (Jagz Kooner Mix)." Not to be outdone in the sound expansion department, Ladytron themselves have taken a crack at everything from an alien-led cover of Human League ("Open Your Heart") to an echo chamber remix of Bloc Party ("Like Eating Glass") and organ-grinding "Catholic Version" of "Destroy Everything You Touch."

Look without listening and Ladytron will seem like just another fashion-driven, hipper-than-thou act — the kind that kicked techno DJs out of dance clubs in the early '00s. However, a quick scan of its songs reveals narratives and notes that are much darker and richer than any electro-clash casualty, from the embittered 21-year-old model caught up in the spellbinding sci-fi soundtrack of "Seventeen" to the boy in "Discotraxx" who knows a "pretty girl in every town," yet "the way they look, they were made to let each other down." Simply put, Ladytron's music shows us just how vacant and pretty life is within a world of cool kids and airbrushed idols — a world that's strangely inviting thanks to a vacuum-sealed mix of electro, new wave, and melancholic indie rock.