The first time I heard La Roux was on a late, insomnia-inspired night spent dogsitting for my parents and watching slews of music videos on VHI. For awhile after, my listening to La Roux was sparse at best. The appeal of my initial listen quickly wore off, as did my fascination with their self-described androgynous singer Elly Jackson. The first time I experienced <\/i>La Roux, though, was in the form of a sample while listening to techno-duo Designer Drugs during a car ride through Berkeley, California last Saturday. (The driver provided the soundtrack). That is when I concluded: La Roux is the future.<\/p>\n
I have heard many well-founded comparisons of La Roux to 1980\u2019s synth pop. The singer\/synthesizer duo harkens back to the days of Soft Cell and every song has a hint of Prince\u2019s \u201cWhen Doves Cry,\u201d but La Roux\u2019s self-titled debut offers much more than Darkness-style nostalgia. Members Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid compose heartfelt, danceable songs with clever lyrics. Literally meaning \u201cthe redhead\u201d (the French male form), the female red-haired singer and her synth-playing partner defy all expectation. <\/p>\n
The album starts out strong with the first four songs being the best. \u201cIn For The Kill\u201d mixes an anthem-like club hit with a beautiful bridge and insightful lyrics such as \u201cThey say we can love who we trust \/ Oooh but what is love without lust?\u201d (How true is that?). \u201cTigerlily\u201d continues the emotive-robot sound with a dramatic melody. \u201cQuicksand\u201d amplifies the drama with musical tension and lyrical desperation as Jackson sings \u201cOh when you turn me on \/ I\u2019m in the Quicksand.\u201d Lastly, \u201cBulletproof,\u201d La Roux\u2019s biggest US single, is a feel-good dancefloor smash extolling the joys of noncommittal love as opposed to the heartbreak of romance. Jackson sings \u201cI\u2019m not turned on to love until it\u2019s cheap.\u201d Cheap love, dance clubs, and androgyny \u2013 sounds like the night of my dreams.<\/p>\n
The appeal of these first four songs is that they work just as well in a club as they do at home. In this respect, La Roux is very much like Prince. The remaining songs, while solid, never match the magic of the first four. The two melancholy ballads, \u201cColourless Colour\u201d and \u201cCover My Eyes,\u201d showcase Jackson\u2019s ability to convey vulnerability and introspection in a pop setting. The rest are still fun and well written but I got a sense that they do not live up to La Roux\u2019s true potential.<\/p>\n
Potential <\/i>is precisely what I gained from listening to La Roux. While Lady Gaga may be the most popular artist amongst the synth pop revivalists, I have a hunch that La Roux\u2019s musical influence will permeate composers, artists, and listeners to come. The progression from fusion to synth pop to hip-hop to techno to La Roux\u2019s techno-pop seems natural and cathartic. Although they are influenced by the 1980\u2019s, La Roux seems like the perfect group to usher music fans into the 21st century. We have arrived to the future, folks. Welcome. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":30312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8570],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41967","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-la-roux","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41967"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}