La Roux – La Roux (Polydor)
There’s been much debate in Britain about which of the many pop strumpets who were thrown the massive albatross of being touted for glory at the beginning of the year would come good.
Helped along by a Skream dubstep mix, which gave her priceless underground credibility, La Roux’s second single, ‘In For The Kill’, hit hard in April/May. The original of the track leads her debut album, and is the best song on there, but twenty-one-year-old Elly Jackson and her production partner Ben Langmaid (La Roux is a duo) never stray too far from pop gold.
He brings a boffin’s knowledge of eighties electronic music to the table which she completes with lyrics and vocals that are sensationally sensitive, sometimes fierce and nearly always concerning adolescent love and self-preservation. Predictable perhaps, but it’s a jackpot combination, and with her insane quiff and closed-shoulder, very male way of performing, she’s intriguing to witness too.
In the UK, especially in times of doom, we like our pop stars to be off-kilter. La Roux is that. This album is hardly era-defining, but it still neatly destroys the competition.
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