La Roux has been current as a hot topic ever since late 2008. It’s not until recently that I’ve caught up with the hype that has surrounded the young Elly Jackson and her bandmate Ben Langmaid. There’s an awful lot of attention pointed towards this flagrant, 80s coiffure-wearing youngster, not least in the two music videos released so far. There’s little focus on the fact that La Roux is actually a British duo more or less ripping off Zeigeist’s simplistic and retro approach to modern electropop. Nonetheless they rip it off with grace, elegance and skill. The three singles (Quicksand, In For The Kill and Bulletproof), taken on a whole, paints a colourful synth-heavy sound that’s jerkily danceable and as charming and catchy as it is spiky and self-confident.

Not necessarily staying longer on the innovative and original side of things than what takes major labels (Polydor in this case) to open their eyes for a new source of reliable revenue, the only fault La Roux could do on their eponymous debut album dropping on June 29 would be to play it safe and go with the flow. Having one foot in the indie-family of Kitsuné (on which the Quicksand single was released) and one foot firmly gripped by Britain’s favourite disposable music culture magazine NME (the band performed live with Franz Ferdinand at NME Awards 2009), La Roux might just get away with their mainstream/indie/alternative crossover potential on their debut album. In the future however, I think both you and I understand that there’s really only one way La Roux could and should go: their own. We’ll have to judge further on the future of the band when the album drops, I’m really looking forward to hearing it.

My favourite track is the latest single, Bulletproof. The verse is sassy, the chorus is sweet and uplifting and the production comes so close to Zeigeist it’s almost ridiculous. The video looks like it would’ve been made by whoever made the video for With Every Heartbeat: just as playful and crystal clear in its stylistic theme.

La Roux - Bulletproof

There are a few remixes of the track out there, but the Foamo remix is by far the better one.

La Roux - Bulletproof (Foamo Remix)