Ladytron - Versus

"Versus vs verses, me vs me. "

Album: Velocifero [4th album]
Recorded: Paris, France
Genre: Synth-Pop, New Rave
Album Release: May 19th 2008
Length: 5:43
Producer: Ladytron
Vocalist: Mira Aroyo
Label: Nettwerk Music Group

Official Audio


Live on KCRW in 2009

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: Over 500 thousand
YouTube Music: Over 500 thousand

Credits

Details 

• The album title 'Velocifero' translates from Italian as 'bringer of speed' and, in this context, refers to Ladytron's high adrenaline style of music.
  
  
• 'Versus' is the musically complex final track on 'Velocifero'. The song uses the different meanings of the word versus, as in against, and verses, as in writing with a rhythm, to create an abstract song with no clear meaning. It features straight-forward lyrics such as "lonely vs safe", "love vs shame" and "a kitten vs rain", which are two things in opposition to one another, but also includes lines such as "cutting verses down to size." and "verses vs versus".
  
  This is where it becomes more complicated. While we have various contradictory concepts, the words "versus" and "verses" sound the same. So "verses vs versus" is a logical, oppositional statement but all of the words sound the same which creates a contradiction. How can things that are the same be opposite?
  
  The song is therefore an artsy play on the ideas of sameness and opposition which can be read as saying the things we think of as opposites have similarities. The next lyric is "me vs me", which works the same way, it's two identical things against each other, the same but opposite. Musically, the 'in opposition' part of the song is accentuated by the use of overlapping male and female vocals, while the 'sameness' part is the voices singing in unison.
  
  
• Ladytron take their name from a song by Roxy Music, also titled 'Ladytron', which is about a man falling in love with a robot. The single, released in 1972, was an early example of electronic music and featured a mellotron.
  
  
• 'Velocifero' was Ladytron's first album release for Nettwerk Music Group. The Canadian label made headlines in the 2000's for supporting the downloading of mp3 files at potentially zero cost to the consumer. This stance pitted them against powerful organizations such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
  
  The 'collapsed copyright' model proposed by Nettwerk would mean artists owned the song as well as the specific recording of it. As such, they could charge what they saw fit for their music and keep the profits for themselves. They could also give it to fans for free. The model would've drastically reduced the role, profitability and power of record labels and was met with fierce opposition.
  
  

Artwork