“Gold Edition” Album Review by La Roux
La Roux is what music is supposed to be about. Infectious, deep, soulful, carefully crafted and meticulously produced, squarely and precisely aimed at making you both dance and think.
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OVERALL 90 |
PRODUCTION 94 |
VOCALS 86 |
INSTRUMENTALS 80 |
LYRICS 92 |
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There are a few things that, in full disclosure, I am probably far too biased to carry out without effectively turning into a tazmanian devil. A critique of the Brit pop band La Roux is just such a thing, drawing a vehement defense from me.
Inherently obvious to me is that La Roux is what music is supposed to be about. Infectious, deep, soulful, carefully crafted and meticulously produced, squarely and precisely aimed at making you both dance and think, La Roux is making the kind of music that hits and defines the time around me… and this is their time. Lead singer and songwriter Elly Jackson is haunting in both voice and lyric and is a natural wonder any time she steps to the microphone or song sheet.
BUY FROM AMAZON  |
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BUY FROM AMAZON |
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So, now that you aware of my SLIGHT bias regarding La Roux, take into account my thoughts of the new ‘Gold Edition’ from La Roux, featuring live, rare, remixed and odd versions of tracks from La Roux’s self titled debut album. La Roux are world class musicians and as such they can take their tunes and reinvent them and give them feel and context worlds apart from their original recording.
The ‘Gold Edition’ collection kicks off with a remix of ‘In For The Kill’ produced by and featuring lyrics by a little-known artist by the name of Kanye West. Jackson dealt her vocal stylings to West’s ‘All the Lights’ in exchange for his production work here. And in exchange, he positively murders the track (get it?). A few tracks later you’ll find the ‘In for the Kill’ Skream remix absolutely dominated my eardrums when I discovered it a few months back, and I quite prefer it to the original version… if you don’t get chills down your spine listening to this cut then you seriously need your ears examined.
Featured after West’s ‘In For The Kill’ are a couple of b-sides, ‘Finally My Saviour’ and Rolling Stones cover ‘Under My Thumb’, that die hard fans like me will rejoice at hearing.
Track ‘Tiger Lilly’ was my personal favorite amongst the final studio album tracks, and while the original demo version found on ‘Gold Edition’ doesn’t work quite as well for my taste, it seems to have drawn widespread feverish acclaim amongst other La Roux fans.
Following track after track of songs even more dore dance-floor-friendly than the original album, the intimate versions of hits ‘Buletproof’ and ‘In For The Kill’ that ‘Gold Edition’ closes with will leave you breathless and are, by themselves, justification enough for purchasing this album as a new jewel for your music library.
