So, having seen the savaging that the Little Boots LP took a few weeks ago, it might have been whispered that the kooky 80s lady synth pop revival championed by Radio 1 et al at the end of 2008 might be over before it has really begun. However, there is a lot here to shout about, not least Elly's soaring (others might say strident but I disagree) voice and the apparent return of the well-crafted song. The arrangements are deliberately simplistic (think 1981/82 Depeche Mode) but none the worse for that; a whole host of remixers have pounced on the space left around the vocals and created some amazing club tracks which have clearly helped to keep La Roux from the 'sharks' for the moment.Apart from the singles 'Quicksand', 'In For The Kill' and out-now 'Bulletproof', the stand out track (and if it were me, obvious next single) is 'Tigerlily', even with the hammy vampiric spoken-word middle eight (from Elly's dad, apparently). But the rest is not filler; 'Fascination' has a fantastic earworm chorus hook and if we don't see 'Armour Love' given the South London dubstep treatment in the next six months I'll eat my blog. Definitely worth investigating.
if they squeeze another single out of that album i'll be impressed (3 and counting, Bulletproof at no1 this week, In for the Kill still floating around the top20 somewhere). but despite my initial skepticism, hats off to polydor *cough* sorry, kitsune for some excellent promotion. i thought she'd been pushed a little heavily, but it turns out they've timed it all just right. I'm also glad they finally realised Bulletproof was by far and away the best single. Unfortunately, she won't get no1 album cos of some dead white bloke, but she should shift more than enough to ensure she gets time to develop a bit more as an artist. get on elly.
ReplyDeleteApparently from interviews 'I'm Not Your Toy' is the (shock?) fourth single. Interesting. I don't think it's as strong as 'Tigerlily' but there is something about it that'll have them yawping the chorus at Secrets in Romford :)
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