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La Roux
La Roux -
Track Listing
| In For The Kill Tigerlily Quicksand Bulletproof Colourless Colour I'm Not Your Toy Cover My Eyes As If By Magic Fascination Reflections Are Protection Armour Love Growing Pains (Bonus Album Track) |
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Brief Review
La Roux's new album times in at 42 minutes including the bonus track and although many would think this isn't long enough, for me it's too long. The 'unique' voice of La Roux is lost under the weight of mediocre tracks and average at best beats that unfortunately leave this album over-hyped for no reason and lacking of any real quality to sustain the listener.
Full Review
La Roux has only recently come onto the pop scene with the bouncy 'In For The Kill' and some gorgeous vocals with real meaning behind them. The happy feel to the track feels slightly odd in contrast to the vocals but the remix that was released later on was sublime and is still played in clubs all over the country. Unfortunately, this isn't even featured on the album and the first track is unfortunately the only good track.
On a CD that can hold 70 minutes, many artists find it difficult to hit the 70 minutes so stick with around an hour of material. La Roux, on the other hand, finds it difficult to hit even 45 minutes. For an album that's being released for around £10 it sometimes feels that artists are just churning out mediocre tracks simply to cash in big and this trend needs to stop.
'Tigerlily' rehashes the sound of the beat from 'In For The Kill' with some average vocals and a beat that sounds too similiar to 'In For The Kill' and is unfortunately one of the average tracks I spoke of.
'Quicksand' was a nice surprise on this album. In my opinion, this is probably the second best song on the album with a catchy little chorus and a simple beat that compliments the song and is one of the saving graces for this CD.
'Bulletproof' is the next song that has been released in the mainstream pop scene and as Simon Cowell would say "I just don't get it." It's the first song that uses a different backing beat instead of a rehash of 'In For The Kill' so in my opinion was probably the next available option to plug into the mainstream audience shy of releasing Quicksand. The tempo is increased in this song but the vocals, although unique, just seem to hold no weight as the album continues.
'Colourless Colour' is the worst song on the album without doubt. Whereas 'Tigerlily' and 'Quicksand' churned a different set of keys from the 'In For The Kill' beat, 'Colourless Colour' is an example of a song that's run out of ideas. It uses the SAME beat but drops the tempo slightly and the results are awful.
The next song 'I'm Not Your Toy' features some good vocals but unfortunately the lack of vocal differentiation in the lead singer's voice makes this song sound more forced than a truly emotional soul song.
'Cover My Eyes' drifts by with a decent effort at a ballad before the tempo picks up but leaves the vocals behind in the awkward 'As If By Magic'.
'Fascination' drifts by in another mediocre effort as well as 'Reflections are protection' before 'Armour Love' finally brings about another stand-out track on an average album. The chords are good and the vocals aren't bad in comparison to some of the other tracks and is definitely worth a listen.
The album ends on the bonus track 'Growing Pains' which is another track with average vocals and a mediocre beat.
At the end of this album it was difficult to find anything positive to say about an album that feels more like a desperate attempt at rehashing the 80s electro sound and fails horribly. The one remix that could have lifted this album is missing and with 2 or 3 good-at-best songs on the album it's probably best to preview the tracks first on a legal download site before deciding whether to buy this album.
However, some people may enjoy this album but I'd suggest listening to this album in chunks instead of one play through from start to finish.
