Album reviews - La Roux and Temper Trap

La Roux

La Roux

(Polydor)

THIS IS an album I really didn’t want to like; is that highly unprofessional to say?

Billed from the first of this year as one of umpteen female-led electro-pop outfits to watch by music magazines (exclusively British-based publications) my hackles were raised when I heard about La Roux, along with Florence and the Machine, Little Boots etc.

However, even a mere half-listen to this album will induce a disco-high, foot-tapping, enjoyable-against-better-judgement, aural experience.

La Roux, the electropop, synth duo of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid have pulled off that most impressive of feats, namely living up to the hype.

Where Jackson is the singer/synth-playing La Roux persona, Langmaid is the shadowy co-writer and producer, willing to leave Jackson in the limelight. But Jackson is no window dressing, there is real talent and spikiness in her voice and performance, while the former Faithless contributor Langmaid has clearly done much to encourage her out of her shell.

The interesting thing is not just that they have co-written most of the offerings on this 12-track debut - but that Jackson comes from a folk background, and that comes through in the songs, despite being twisted inside out with synthesizers and drum machines.

First single Quicksand is not as dancy as expected, a synth-pop sound in evolution and an interesting contrast with In For The Kill, the second single from the album, Jackson allowing her personality to filter through.

The effortlessly cool and unflinchingly dark Tigerlily is an eye-opener, right down to the clearly Thriller-inspired spooky voiceover.

Things hot up on the bouncy disco-beat of Bulletproof, the duo’s first UK number one, “I’ve been there done that, messed around / I’m having fun don’t put me down / I’ll never let you sweep me off my feet”, declares Jackson boldly.

The best thing about this is that the album is so much more than the sum of its singles; the gentle, relaxed beat of Cover My Eyes is stuffed with emotion; the acerbic I’m Not Your Toy is a smash waiting to happen, while Armour Love will seduce you with its angular rhythms.

A thrilling debut, worth the hype.

RATING: 4/5

Temper Trap

Conditions

(Infectious Records)

THIS Australian four-piece have literally mined every known influence under the sun and produced an album suffused with bits from here and there; U2/Edge jangly guitars, Bloc Party’s angular drumming, the Killers’ thumping bass-lines, Coldplay harmonies, Stars/Broken Social Scene vocals, Sufjan-strings - the list could go on. Do they succeed?

Yes, in a word.

Hailing from the musical hotspot of Melbourne - there is literally a bar around every corner groaning with any manner of new, up and coming bands - this indie quartet have recently decamped to London and it is hard to see them remaining relatively unknown for long.

The plodding beat of opening track ‘Love Lost’ echoes with these influences and more, finding peaks and troughs, rising and falling along with Dougie Mandagi’s (what a great name) vocals.

‘Rest’ is stuffed with pulsating rhythms and atmospheric guitars, no standard run of the mill indie music here. The Unforgettable Fire-esque Sweet Dispositions impresses, “Don’t stop till you surrender”, sings Mandagi and we are tempted to agree.

The epic ‘Soldier On’ is the centre-piece of this album, a whiff of Empire of the Sun about it despite its acoustic nature, building to a booming conclusion.

‘Resurrection’ exhibits the confidence this band has in spades; what could be a bad Scissor Sisters-style disaster instead veers toward a bouncy, Zeppelin influenced - check out the falsetto vocals on this - breakout, all jangly-spacey guitars and thumping drums.

Oh yes, I’ll have some more of this please.

RATING 4/5

Album reviews - Wallis Bird and Mos Def

FROM Tuesday's Limerick Chronicle: Many thanks to guest reviewer Ger Fitzgibbon for his interesting insights into the world of Mos Def...

Mos Def - ‘The Ecstatic’

(Downtown Records)

IN the past ten years, the mainstream has chewed away at the edges of some of hip hop’s finest craftsmen, and the genre has suffered because of it.

In 2006, when he released the utterly uninspiring ‘True Magic’, Mos Def forced many purists to gasp a sharp breath and avert their eyes. Once the finest exponent of the cut-and-paste sample with the hard political question, Dante Smith seemed to be on a greasy slide to the middle.

Thankfully, ‘The Ecstatic’ has tethered the thinking man’s hip hop leviathan back to his base. Mos Def’s fourth solo album is a masterful return to form, and one that has come not a moment too soon.

The overlapping production of Madlib, Oh No and Mr Flash (plus another posthumous appearance from J Dilla on ‘History’) pulls the sound of the record in different angles, with Bollywood samples in ‘The Embassy’ contrasting with the bombastic synth in ‘Life in Marvellous Times’.

But throughout ‘The Ecstatic’ there is a simmering energy that is driven by some of Mos Def’s finest lyrical flow in years. He, like Q Tip before him in 2008’s opus ‘The Renaissance’, seems invigorated by the pragmatic joy of the world view of Obama’s America - ‘And we are alive in amazing times/delicate hearts, diabolical minds’.

‘The Ecstatic’ may not reach the stratospheric heights touched by ‘The Renaissance’, but it takes a admirable shot nonetheless. It is, however, a tad unsettling to think that the skill required to execute such a polished hip hop record today lies in the hands of probably less than two dozen men, many of whom are scraping 40.

Still, if Mos Def can continue to summon this sort of prolificacy, we will not have to wrestle with the death of hip hop just yet.

RATING 4/5

GER FITZGIBBON

Wallis Bird - New Boots’

(Rubyworks)

IT CAN’T be easy to be Wallis Bird; acoustic guitar-toting dynamo, a whirlwind of energy and whitticisms - leading the way for the new batch of Irish singer songwriters in her inimitable style.

It can’t be easy because of her very obvious independent streak; this is the type of girl who would likely tell some big-wig record company exec to go and jump if she was asked to bend her music to some mainstream bent.

Bird, from Wexford, surfed into 2008 on the back of some gushing reviews for her debut album Spoons and strong word of mouth on her exuberant live performances, before playing sold out tours of Ireland, the UK and Europe, and supporting acts as diverse as Gabrielle and Billy Bragg.

Spoons was a triumph to her individuality; a superbly crafted acoustic pop album that was often whimsical but also capable of erupting with a harder edge, and there was plenty of bite to her lyrics.

Bird had already recorded Spoons when she signed with Island Records - a deal that fell apart last year, a marriage destined not to work, the spiky singer reckoning that they did “f*ck all with it”.

Now, after much soul searching, Bird is back with excellent follow-up New Boots. An album that is at times overwhelming due to it’s incredible energy, it nonetheless firmly underlines the potential displayed on her debut.

The theme running through this 13-track offering is of a performer living on the edge, one searching for love, that may be just beyond her reach. Capable of running the gamut of memorable female front women from Joni Mitchell to Chrissie Hynde in the blink of an eye, there is affection and anger here in equal measure.

Unsurprisingly there is a harder edge to this second album; see the bassy-funk of La La Land and the visceral energy of opening track Can Opener, which features a spine-tingling yelp from Bird. The jazzy Travelling Bird has plenty of bite, while first single To My Bones screams of radioplay potential.

By contrast the whimsical acoustic groove of An Idea About Mary, the emotional When We Kissed and soaring Measuring Cities showcase a singer and songwriter capable of combining the sweet with the sour.

This Bird is too wild to be caged up - and more power to her.

RATING 3/5

ALAN OWENS