LA ROUX - La Roux [ self-titled ]
LA ROUX - La Roux [ self-titled ]
Written by Luke Oram   
Monday, 31 August 2009 10:21
La Roux - La Roux Ah, androgyny. Bit of a Pandora’s box really. Of course, you’ve got Bowie, who was quite brilliant in Labyrinth... I tried to tease my hair up like that once. Ended up looking like a homeless Robert Smith. I don’t know how he does it.

Then you’ve got the self-confessed “Big fat ginger clout” known as LA ROUX; the latest of the synth-touting electro-pop ladies to hit the scene and blur lines on the dance-floor. Smash UK disco-crossover ‘In For The Kill’, is a good place to start if you want an intro to the La Roux sound... which is actually a collaborative effort between Elly Jackson and producer Ben Langmaid. Like The Eurythmics without the messy inter-personals. ‘In For The Kill’ propelled a previously unknown Jackson to the top of the UK charts like a bullet, inspiring a flurry of remixes and a glad eye from the bigwigs at Polydor.
As the opening gambit for La Roux’s self-title debut, ‘In For The Kill’ hits you square in the jaw with the signature sound. Namely, Jackson’s brit-twinged voice which ranges from an almost-annoying synthetic falsetto, to an attitude-infused bittersweet punk baritone. All this atop multi-instrumentalist Langmaid’s deconstructed, Fisher-Price instrumentation, which runs a fine line between great and garish.

As an album, 'La Roux' is the epitome of the electro-pop style that’s currently in vogue. A quality that is a blessing and a curse. The album showcases a great song-writing ability from Jackson, ‘Bulletproof’ is almost an indie song in disguise; as Jackson resolves to be stronger and wiser after being dicked around by the wrong guy, weaving perfectly in with Langmaid’s sparse breakbeats. ‘As If By Magic’ is a great ballad in disguise, a throwback to Jackson’s childhood loves Joni Mitchell and Carol King. The album does well to steer clear of the doldrums too – Jackson avoids pulling up a stool for a quick weepie mid-album, instead opting to keep the beats up-beat and the melodies triumphant.

Despite all this though, La Roux seems to lack a bit of backbone – for a ‘band’ built around La Roux's brightly-quaffed, indie-catwalk persona, her backup’s a little slow in coming. Langmaid’s production is a bit two-dimensional and parts of the album are unforgivable. Especially the cringe-worthy attempt at a pseudo-rip off of Vincent Price’s spooky ‘Thriller’ voiceover in ‘Tigerlily’, which should see someone fired. From a cannon.

It’s often hard to tell where the line between the hype and the actual product lies in La Roux’s case. Some things are evident; Elly Jackson can write a hit song, and she clearly has the chops to be the nu-rave artistic spokeswoman of her genre. Perhaps a sophomore album and some big-name production credits will help to clear up the rest.
 

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