La Roux – La Roux

Releasedate: 26-06-2009; Label: Universal/Polydor
By: Nina Mende

La Roux (pronounced “La Roo”) is a British electropop synth duo band made up of singer and synth player Elly Jackson, and co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid, with Jackson describing their respective roles as “very much a half and half sharing situation… not like a singer producer outfit”, but also recognizing that it often can “look like a solo act”. Their music is influenced by 1980s synth pop including Human League, Heaven 17, Blancmange and Yazoo.

The first half of the album is very danceable and great for clubbing. The second half of “La Roux” is still very danceable, but slower. “Cover My Eyes” is a very slow song, a little sad as well. “Fascination” is a very funky song. Elly’s voice is high pitched and not very full, it sounds soft and weak at some points. But that is very common in electro pop synth music. On the album cover you can see a portrait of Elly, inside you can find the lyrics to each song and a street picture. The booklet is held in black and very simple. Listening to this album you really think of 80s synth pop, very pure and not much of fancy effects or anything. Just like the booklet the music is held simple. The last couple songs are great for chilling out to.

Links:
La Roux MySpace
La Roux Official