La Roux - 'I'm Not Your Toy'
Cards on the table time: I'm not a La Roux fan. I don't especially like their songs, I don't like Elly Jackson's voice, and from what I've read of her in interviews, I'm not even overly enamoured of her as a person. However, I didn't ask to do this review just so I could rant at length on my issues with the whole project - quite the reverse, I wanted to see if I could put my personal taste to one side and judge the song on its own merits.
At least that was the plan, until I mentioned it to my friend (who quite likes La Roux), who stared at me blankly and said "but the new song's rubbish - even I don't like that one." Oh dear.
( Caution: May feature disturbing scenes of moustaches and pipes.)
That's not to say I didn't still try to like it. Actually, there were bits of the song I quite enjoyed: the instrumental at the very beginning, for example, which sounded like it ought to have been the theme tune to an 8-bit RPG, and thus was quite pleasing in a retro sort of way.
And the lyrics to the verses can be pretty emotive. And in terms of all-round pleasantness, it's less likely to make your ears bleed than 'In For The Kill' and less whiny than 'Bulletproof', so that's fine.
And yet...argh, that voice! I'm sorry, I tried, but I just can't get past it. I genuinely don't get it. I'm no philistine - I'm all for experimentation in music, and ambition, and trying to push the boundaries, but I can't help thinking that that's only worthwhile if the end result is satisfying to listen to, and whenever I listen to this, any positive feelings I might have are drowned out by the voice in my head going "BUT SHE IS NOT SINGING IN TUNE AND IT SOUNDS HIDEOUS".
And maybe it's all just an elaborate art project that only the truly cool and special people can appreciate, in which case I openly admit that I am uncool and not special because I Just Don't Get It At All. Perhaps all the people who nominated her for the Mercury Music Prize are laughing at me at this very moment for being such a simpleton - fine, I shall learn to live with that.
But c'mon, the song doesn't stick around like it ought to - it's rather wishy-washy. And for all the charm of the verses, the chorus is weaker than an malnourished church mouse. Annoying as they both were, I'm not about to deny that 'In For The Kill' and 'Bulletproof' were darned catchy. This is just a bit soggy, really.
And so I bring my experiment to an end, concluding that yes, you can listen to a song and judge it on its own merits without letting your personal feelings about the artist colour your judgement, but sometimes there's a limit to how far you can be expected to take that - and it really only works if the song's any good in the first place. Which this isn't.
Download: Out now
CD Released: September 28th
´óÏó´«Ã½ Music page
PS: Read ´óÏó´«Ã½ Music's review of the La Roux album...
(Steve Perkins)
Comment number 1.
At 26th Sep 2009, flatknees wrote:fair play on the review, if the voice doesn't sound good then to you then the song can't work. i think it's alright, steel drums are always welcome (btw i give kiss of life by friendly fires 6 out of 5 stars) to the party. but yea it is a bit wishy washy.
data remix is good though.
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Comment number 2.
At 26th Sep 2009, kylielikely wrote:Well, you'd hardly call her voice melliflous but I think this single matches the first two and Im liking the album in general. But probably not with a migraine.
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Comment number 3.
At 26th Sep 2009, kylielikely wrote:or even mellifluous
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Comment number 4.
At 26th Sep 2009, kylielikely wrote:Trying to make out type of car she's driving in "in For The Kill" Think it's a Toyota MR2 mark 1 or maybe a Pontiac Fiero or perhaps something mocked-up
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Comment number 5.
At 26th Sep 2009, flatknees wrote:when i first saw the car question my automatic response would be that its a Delorian (back to the future car). but after watching the vid, its a toyota mr2.
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Comment number 6.
At 27th Sep 2009, kingshleppy wrote:I think this song is really good after a few listens to be honest...didn't have that high an opinion of it at first but it's really grown on me..Loving Tiger Lily as well, quite like In For The Kill but in a more stalkery sort of way...brilliant.
And have you reviewed drumming song yet by Florence and the Machine??
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Comment number 7.
At 27th Sep 2009, flatknees wrote:tigerlily is my favourite la roux track, really punchy... doesn't seem to be many la roux fans who take umbridge to the review or haters who agree.. serious lack of postage
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Comment number 8.
At 28th Sep 2009, CurtainJerker wrote:It was over the weekend, FK. It's bound to be quiet then.
I thought "In For The Kill" was good, "Bulletproof" was so-so and less striking than "In For The Kill", and this one is just blah. The voice didn't bother me in "In For The Kill", even though some people seemed to think it was awful. But in this one, I agree that it just sounds bad.
I'm also bored with the 80s Casio sound. Seriously, is the whole album like that? EVERY song? It's an OK gimmick for one single, but that has to get tedious after a while.
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Comment number 9.
At 28th Sep 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Fraser you continue to amaze me with spot on reviews.
Enough of the fan boi from me...
.. I absolutely LOVE Bulletproof. I think its a quality track. Everything else by La Roux, I pretty much dislike. Mostly for her voice. I think In for the Kill has its merits, most of which i appreciate much more intoxicated. That seems to be the only way I can enjoy that track. But then Id probably enjoy paint drying under similar situations.
There are some great remixes of La Rous stuff about there, particuarly In for the kill. However theres also some terrible ones. I remember one where it was mostly completely slowed down and it just emphasised the fact her voice can probably break glass.
Also from what Ive heard they are pretty poor live. They did a good murder job on Farewell to the Fairground in the Live Lounge.
Ill be glad when they disppaear for a 2nd album. Ill happily just listen to Bulletproof.
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Comment number 10.
At 28th Sep 2009, spirit wrote:I think I am right in saying that the person who has done the excellent review is Steve Perkins .
His name is down the bottom , and that sure looks like his writing style.
It is a great review as he justifies all his thoughts with an example , and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it .
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Comment number 11.
At 28th Sep 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Ugh sorry Steve. Fantastic review from you then.
Why cant each reviewer have their own account? I just saw "Fraser McAlpine | 11:56 UK time, Saturday, 26 September 2009 " at the top.
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Comment number 12.
At 28th Sep 2009, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:It's deeply complicated, sorry to say. All you need to know is that a) Steve's reviews will always be under my name, and b) Any credit I get by mistake, I always pass along.
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Comment number 13.
At 28th Sep 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Fair enough then. I seemed to remember you liking La Roux Fraser but maybe I made that up. I managed to discount that fact as I read this review for the first time. Ill be sure to try and check more carefully next time!
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Comment number 14.
At 28th Sep 2009, spirit wrote:Yeah , Fraser gave Bulletproof 5 stars , quite rightly in my opinion .
I'm not your toy is not in that league , however....
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Comment number 15.
At 29th Sep 2009, flatknees wrote:so wait is fraser a real person? or is he one of the extra's from doctor who which has a lot of artificial intelligence??
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Comment number 16.
At 29th Sep 2009, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:Ah but what is 'real' anyway, hmm?
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Comment number 17.
At 29th Sep 2009, flatknees wrote:thats obvious.. do you have a world of warcraft account?
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Comment number 18.
At 29th Sep 2009, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:No, but someone once hacked into my eBay account and listed 600 World of Warcraft things. No idea what they were.
Damn near cost me £200 in listings fees. True story.
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Comment number 19.
At 3rd Oct 2009, thranjax wrote:I have never really understood how you can have a whole World of Warcraft. I mean, someone must make shoes in this world? and teddy bears? or does every business have to be warcraft related? Are they exploding teddy bears stuffed with Anthrax? (The spores not the rock band).
And if everyone in the World of Warcraft is waging war, then there must be as many armies as there are people. So most "wars" are just, in fact, what we would call "scuffles".
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Comment number 20.
At 3rd Oct 2009, thranjax wrote:And if there isn't a place in Cornwall called Scuffles, well, there should be.
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Comment number 21.
At 3rd Oct 2009, spirit wrote:Anyone fancy a cream tea in Scuffles ?
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