Album Details

• Artist: La Roux
• Album: La Roux
• Label: Polydor
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dadair on 2009-08-14

An ambient take on New Young Pony Club, shows that a brooding nature and cruising yet funky dance energy aren't always like two disruptive school pupils and don't have to be kept apart. The often punchy, point-making and fuzzily sliding accompaniment conjuring, song writing duo of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmead, use La Roux to give synth pushed pop some thoughtfulness and strut. The former's gliding, medium pitched vocals that often expand into a mild cry, ‘In For The Kill' almost scraps against the synth sliding, especially when the instrumentals take on more robustness.

At times, a distanced and dreamy Eurythmics flavour is sprinkled on top of an occasionally animated vocal performance by the actress' daughter, Elly. ‘Tigerlilly', uses New Wave feistiness, echoing pitching and an uncompromising Sinead O'Connor kick shows up again the era that has most impacted upon this contrasting, but well matched pair. Unlike many pop albums, each song pays attention to tone and mood building detail, often sacrificing the catchy impact of snappiness. Largely, the cocky swaggering and bolshy boasts are saved for interviews in favour of vulnerable imagery through the lyrics and the meaningful delivery of them, ‘Quicksand'. Obviously, provocative cockiness is something that they can do to devastating effect, as previous number one single ‘Bulletproof', bears out. However, it is made bearable and quite welcoming for its sparseness. Also, the simply swirling, digitally kicked beats add to the boldness of the song's impact.

Elly is happily cast in the role of being the cherubesque, but slightly cheeky face and voice of La Roux, providing the needed bravado. Something that is well captured in the playfully stern ‘I'm Not Your Toy'. Langmead's contribution is no less easy to discern and certainly no less valuable. Often dictating the pace and adding the odd kitschy tug to the likes of the slow churning, tenderizing fuzz out of ‘As If By Magic' and, the hauntingly hovering ‘Fascination'. It's through the bonus track, ‘Growing Pains' that the true depth in the song structure appears, with an almost blues funk and electro dressing carefully placing a plaster over the wounds that are opened out through the slightly groaning projection of Jackson. Who captivatingly narrates a tale about the pains of the growing up and trying to be grown up.

La Roux have delivered a debut album of depth, scattiness, beat-sliding and mundane philosophy. All they need is someone with enough media savvy and confidence to big it up and keep it in the public domain. Cue Ellie!

User Reviews and Comments

Review:

on 2011-11-25 CharlesMartel Said:

I don't like Karaoke. Mainly this is because I cannot sing and, besides, I have no confidence to stand in front of people and make a complete tit of myself. But listening to La Roux I feel I may have misjudged the pastime. Ellie Jackson has the sort of voice which makes you wince. Her voice belongs in the scruffiest of inner-city karaoke clubs, where all the patrons are too drunk to care anyway.

La Roux seem to think that they can make a success of things by aping eighties synth pop. Well, they are going to have to do far far better than this. "In for the Kill" has one of the worst vocal performances I have heard on a serious album (by serious I mean not like William Hung) and the music is a sort of casiotone nightmare. "Tigerlily" is marginally better, but is ruined when the drunken male gets up to add some additional vocals to the karaoke.

The really sad thing is that there are some people, mostly those who weren't around there at the time, who think that eighties synth pop marked the apogee of post-Beatles popular music. Ellie Jackson is presumably one of them because she has taken the association so far as to wear on top of her head one of those ridiculous hairstlyes which, for those of us who remember, make you squirm with embarrassment.

But in their homage to eighties synth pop, La Roux have been selective about what they have taken from it. They have cleverly managed to filter out anything that was good and interesting and taken all the things which made some synth pop unbearable. Then they have crafted their sound around this. Imagine, sterile arrangements, poor lyrics and the dreadful over production and you have what might seem a parody of the eighties. But La Roux encapsulate it so well that you could almost be fooled. But this is not a parody. This is for real.

Quite how this got nominated for a Mercury prize in the UK is beyond me. I know that these awards are basically a chance for the music industry to pat itself on the back at having deprived more schoolkids of their pocket money, but seriously, how can this even be considered as being among the best of the year? Unless, of course, best of the year means best at parting gullible dupes from their money.
Rating: 1/10