music

La Roux: La Roux review

Label
Polydor
Release date
29th June 2009
Genre
Pop
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Chart-topping revivalist unveils painfully flimsy debut.

Elly Jackson remains profoundly in love with music that was made before she was born. The woman known as La Roux began 2009 vowing to recreate the “theatrical and big and epic” synth-pop of the early eighties, and with Bulletproof standing proud at number one as In For The Kill spends its third month in the Top 40, there is no doubt her campaign has been a commercial success.

This is bizarre, as her music recalls not the big hitters of the first wave of UK electropop such as the Human League or ABC but rather lesser lights: A Flock of Seagulls, Blancmange, Fiction Factory. Tracks like Tigerlily and Cover My Eyes are almost parodically tinny, while Jackson’s voice throughout the album is both shrill and strained.

The people have spoken, and they clearly love La Roux – but on this evidence, her world domination may prove short-lived.

More to try:
Little Boots: Hands
Classix Nouveaux: La Verité
Fiction Factory: Throw The Warped Wheel Out

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La Roux: La Roux

Reviews round-up

The Times
3/5
3/5
Guardian
3/5
3/5
NME
9/10
9/10
Independent
2/5
2/5
07-07-2011