Freaked out by Anxiety

Ladyhawke’s second album is aptly titled, reflecting the singer’s tortuous writer’s block, says Ed Power

PIP BROWN is relieved. “I’d been away so long, I started freaking out,” says the Ladyhawke singer. “I worried everybody might have forgotten who I was. It took until the middle of the summer for me to chill out. To realise that, actually, people did remember.”

Brown was gone three years, a life-time in pop. She had won a big fan-base with her chart-topping 2009 debut, also titled Ladyhawke, a compelling mix of 1970s soft rock and ’90s garage pop. Hopes were high for her second album, but she had writer’s block. Fans wondered whether she’d given up on music.