Track Listing

1. In For The Kill
2. Tigerlily
3. Quicksand
4. Bulletproof
5. Colourless Colour
6. I'm Not Your Toy
7. Cover My Eyes
8. As If By Magic
9. Fascination
10. Reflections Are Protections
11. Armour Love
12. Growing Pains (UK bonus track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33 in Music
• Released on: 2009-06-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 51 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
With commercially successful singles "Quicksand" and "In For The Kill" (latterly remixed by dubstep luminary Skream), red-headed, pale-skinned Brixton girl Elly Jackson and her "invisible" co-producer Ben Langmaid irrevocably established their love of 80s pop. This debut album continues the duo’s foray into euphoric retro-dance, nodding non-ironically to the likes of The Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Heaven 17 and The Human League while remaining impressively contemporary. Opening with a string of sassy tunes--the buzzing "Tigerlily", the synth-heavy "Quicksand" and the slick and fiery "Bulletproof"--it’s apparent that La Roux have colour, class and confidence in spades. The album tapers off a little during the second half--failed experiments like "Cover My Eyes" which features the London Community Gospel Choir don't help--but it still boasts way more in the shape of dynamic killers than sappy fillers. First class. --Danny McKenna

CD Description
Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, for the show is about to begin. "The red haired one" will now start making electro-pop mean something again. Elly Jackson is 20 years old, and is experiencing all the things girls of that age tend to; heartbreak, frustration, wonderment, invincibility and fragility. But unlike most girls her age, Elly has a staggering ability to channel all these feelings and experiences into wondrous blasts of crystal-clean ear candy that hit the listener with instant resonance. But La Roux (French for "the red haired one") isn’t about disposable dancefloor fodder or meaningless pap--her creative waters are stirred most by the artistry of the original electro chart pioneers like Eurythmics and Depeche Mode, while she grew up strumming along to soul-searching sage’s like Nick Drake and Neil Young, starting points that still ground her today. The result of the gestation period of classic songwriting-meets-synth is a spread of tracks where a timeless electronic utopia and a Noughties’ head-nod danceability is underpinned by a painstaking way with words.

The self-titled LP is a kaleidoscope of emotions, touching on everything from heartbreak to disappointment to invincibility--all in true spine tingling La Roux measures that create an instant resonance. The album contains the singles "Quicksand" and "In For The Kill" and "Bulletproof" still sounding fresh as a daisy, alongside the high crystal-clean falsettos of "Fascination" to the brooding lulls of ballad "Cover My Eyes" (that features London Community Gospel Choir).

Customer Reviews

Charm Offensive
It's taken a while both to catch up with this one
and to make up my mind whether or not I like it.
There is a lot of it about after all !
Little Boots, Ladyhawke, Peaches, Robyn.
(Miss Kittin is, of course, in a class entirely her own).

Robyn's 2007 eponymous release is as fine an example
of noughties electro-pop as we are ever likely to hear.
Intelligent, varied and convincing. A hard act to follow.

La Roux (Ms Jackson AND Mr Langmaid lest we forget)
have produced a tidy little collection of 12 catchy
pop songs on this sparkly little debut.

Those who have witnessed my somewhat disparaging
remarks about Little Boots' recent release will
doubtless ask : "How do you dare compliment La Roux
and damn Little Boots in virtually the same breath ?"
I'm not sure that I could give a cogent explanation however.

The songs are just better somehow : the arrangements
disarmingly simplistic; the melodies naively memorable;
the voice, despite its obvious limitations, believable.

Single "Bulletproof" is a cracking little number with
a killer hookline you can sing along with and dance to.

The duo manage to be soulful in a not dissimilar way
to their long-time-ago predecessors Yazoo on songs like
'Colourless Colour' and 'As If By Magic'.

'Tigerlily' and 'Reflections Are Protection' project a rougher,
funkier edge, bursting with stripped-down economical energy.

CHARM ! That's what it is. The word I've been trying to find.
This stuff is CHARMING in a generous, warm-hearted, wholesome way.

Electronica and more-than-a-little human magic wrapped up in a
reassuringly old-fashioned brown paper parcel tied up with string.

A real gift in other words.

Highly Recommended.

One of pop's most refreshing releases in recent years
I am 42 and have been in love with music since my childhood. I am deeply passionate about a very wide variety of music, from serious classical music to opera, lived through the 80s with the the New Wave movement, then Madonna and Pet SHop Boys formed the soundtrack of life from the 90s on; discovered trance and danced till it died in the 21st century.

I still buy CDs and always try to keep up with pop other than those from winners of TV talent shows. Why is all this relevant? Let me say this, this album is one of the most refreshing pop releases in recent years!! Yes she has got an odd voice, yes, the lyrics are odd, yes, she looks odd, yes, at first and second listen many of the tracks share similar beats and even chords. But this girl knows how to put a catchy tune together. Remember when songs used to be about melody and tune? This is like the 80s all over again. What were the better pop releases in the past year or two? Sasha Fierce? E=MC2? Day and Age? Funhouse?The Sweet Escape? Relapse? Count La Roux in! Give it a go, don't take it too seriously, and treat your ears to some catchy tunes again.

Good but similar sounding songs
The album has a lot of good songs on it but they do sound very similar to each other. Twelve in a row over 46 minutes is a pretty wearying experience. Which makes me think the album is only good for a small number of listens straight through from start to finish.

As far as I can tell the only instrument on the whole album is electronic keyboards. I've been told there's some digitally manipulated guitars on it, but I haven't noticed them. As an instrument keyboards have limited appeal on their own after a while due to a lack of tonal variety.


1. "In for the Kill" - 4:08 (5 stars)
Skeletal music with good lyrics. It works. The highlight of the album.

2. "Tigerlily" - 3:24 (3 stars)
Bits are good here and there and the silent breakdown parts are very effective. The Thriller style spoken word part is too derivative to work in its own right. Decent but nothing great.

3. "Quicksand" - 3:05 (3 stars)
Unremarkable and has an abrupt ending.

4. "Bulletproof" - 3:25 (4 stars)
Solid song. I like the contrast between her rapid delivery of the verses and the colder, flatter intoned chorus parts ("This time I'll be bulletproof")

5. "Colourless Colour"- 3:28 (2 stars)
A weak attempt at a slow ballad with poor lyrics. Banal but not terrible.

6. "I'm Not Your Toy" - 3:18 (3 stars)
Decent enough but nothing about it leaps out at me.

7. "Cover My Eyes" - 4:32 (4 stars)
Mid-tempo track with a choir performing the backing vocals. Nice, melodic song with the choir interacting well with the lead vocals.

8. "As If By Magic" - 3:51 (3 stars)
Nice uncluttered song of no great merit. Reminds me slightly of Ladyhawke although that might just be because she sings the word "magic", which is the name of a notable Ladyhawke song.

9. "Fascination" - 3:41 (4 stars)
Lyrically a bit more interesting as it has a stalker storyline. She sings it with more falsetto than usual. The song sounds slightly different to the rest of the album.

10. "Reflections Are Protections" - 4:19 (4 stars)
Double tracked vocals on this uncluttered mid-tempo track. Better than average.

11. "Armour Love" - 3:53 (4 stars)
Has a nice ascending vocal melody on this mid-tempo semi-ballad. Her voice is a bit softer on this song than usual. A good song to end the album with.

12. "Growing Pains" (UK Bonus Track) - 3:27 (4 stars)
"I felt my mind detonate" is an interesting lyric. Effective song that just sounds right. I'm surprised it didn't make the album. Her vocals sound slightly rough as though they haven't been produced to a finished sheen.


I like to make EP playlists out of albums on my iPod. Tracks 1, 4, 7 and 9 made the cut.

Little Boots has recently released an album called Hands which most people are comparing with La Roux. In my opinion La Roux has made the better album overall, but in truth I would prefer to listen to Little Boots' more inconsistent album due to its wider stylistic range. Basically La Roux is better, but can be a bit like hard work, while Little Boots is more straight up enjoyable.

If you like this album then you might also like:
Depeche Mode - The Singles 81>85 (all keyboard brooding pop with male vocals)
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (keyboards and guitars and has substantial trace elements of pop)
Jean Michel Jarre - Aero (all keyboard instrumental music)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (for the massive choir doing the backing vocals on the whole of this double album, like on the La Roux song "Cover My Eyes")