• Record Label: Modular
  • Release Date: Sep 22, 2008
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 17
  2. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. Ladyhawke is unlikely to win any awards for originality but you'd be hard pressed to find a more consistent and hook-laden debut all year.
  2. Substantive lyrics aren’t part of Pip Brown’s forte but, then again, they’re totally unnecessary in the genre to which she peddles.
  3. People will tell you Ladyhawke is fresh and exciting. They're wrong. It's horrendous.
  4. Filter
    82
    Brown has an unlikely knack for putting quality into cliched, classic disco and rock. [Holiday 2008, p.106]
  5. We'll settle for saying it's a great record. Full stop.
  6. Ladyhawke’s louche synthetic pop is brazenly Bananarama, ridiculously ‘Rio’, and wonderfully Waterman, but the lack of posing – her sheer scruffiness – makes it the first credible ’80s pop record since ABC’s ‘The Lexicon Of Love’
  7. Ladyhawke is an accessible but immensely rewarding listen, and while some of this singer's influences may be middle of the road, her album isn't even on the road.
  8. Ladyhawke is brimming with ideas whose worst moments quantify this past and whose best build upon it.
  9. We can quibble about intent and expression, but in the end you will have to succumb to the heart, body and soul, and your brain might be left behind.
  10. Q Magazine
    60
    One nostalgia trip worth taking. [Oct 2008, p.147]
  11. As with so much Eighties revivalism, there is a chilly emptiness to the exercise; most of the songs feel like fashion statements.
  12. 80
    Plundering the 1980s for inspiration (shock!), 27-year- old New Zealander Pip Brown emerges with a confection of synth-infused, mammoth-chorused tunes that sound surprisingly and thrillingly fresh.
  13. New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Pip Brown a/k/a Ladyhawke presents us with a treasure trove of found blips, as if the 1980s had been nothing but a gigantic mirror ball to smash and paste back together.
  14. Smarts to her, too, for making her pop sound so good that it never sounds like pastiche.
  15. Uncut
    60
    It's all craftily entertaining, but loopy lead single 'Paris Is Burning' is the one track that escapes pastiche. [Oct 2008, p.94]
  16. Under The Radar
    50
    Rotating guest producers help enhance her arrangements, and when she nails one, you'll revisit it. Other tracks, though, have a tiresome, hook-by-committee vibe that's entirely disposable. [Winter 2009, p.78]
  17. 70
    Her eponymous debut is the closest thing to “Betty Davis Eyes” or “Stand Back” recorded for our generation, and yet it isn’t nauseatingly retro.
User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 30
  2. Negative: 2 out of 30
  1. Nov 20, 2019
    9
    Good! I Love This Album! Thanks Ladyhawke! Love from Russia! I'm cant. Crying so much
  2. Sep 13, 2010
    8
    Phillipa â