Music Review :: La Roux - La Roux

Artist :: La Roux
Album :: La Roux
Release :: 2009
Label :: Polydor
Genre :: Pop / Electropop

While I couldn't explain to you the exact process, as I'm not as skilled in my understanding of human anatomy as a med student (or any given commenter on Photoshop Disasters) ...but something happens between childhood and adulthood that causes your taste buds change and start to develop a favor for bitter flavors instead of just sweet ones.

Pop music is much the same way. There's plenty of one-dimensional sweetness geared more for children and teenagers, which, there's absolutely nothing wrong with. I enjoy a good pack of Starburst candies every few months or so. Just like between my stints of listening to M. Ward or Elliott Smith, I like to sometimes kick on some Fall Out Boy or Gwen Stefani and rock around in my computer chair lip synching (as to not let my roommates know about what ridiculous nonsense is taking place in my room.)

On rare occasions, every once in a blue moon or so, something comes along that's the perfect amount of both. ...The Heath Bar (or Skor bar, if that's your game.) A grand combination of childish sweetness and pretentious sophistication.

Enter La Roux.

With so many cheap electropop-revival acts floating around, La Roux actually come off as though they've been unearthed from a time capsule. Some opening act for The Human League that were locked in a cryogenic chamber and thawed in a time period where there would be flying cars and a cure for terminal boneitus.

And, as an added bonus to that authentic feeling, they're really fucking good as well. Go figure.

Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid pack their self-titled debut full-length with a bundle of instant dancefloor shout-along classics including "In For the Kill" "Colourless Colour" and the impossibly memorable "Bulletproof," which, even in living under a rock for a few months, I managed to hear.

Personally, any time I hear a catchy electropop single, I immediately think about "Ice Cream" by New Young Pony Club, and assume it's one decent track meant to sell to TV ads and the rest of the album is trash, but the bulk of La Roux more than holds itself up under the weight of "Bulletproof."

Now, it's doubtful that La Roux will change you in some deeply spiritual way. If you didn't like the sound of synthesizers before, one quirky redhead with terrible 80's make-up and a good voice isn't going to change your mind. But if you're tired of Lady Gaga being the only viable pop act floating around this year, and can manage to listen to a record without a T-Pain collaboration on it (I can, but it's hard,) then it's definitely worth your time to check out. 4/5