Album review: La Roux - Trouble In Paradise

La Roux’s second album did not come by its title flippantly.

The ‘trouble’ referred to was an entirely un-amicable creative break-up between singer Elly Jackson and producer and co-writer Ben Langmaid, following the success of their 2009 debut LP.

The split, apparently prompted by Jackson’s determination to widen her circle of collaborators, plunged the already exhausted vocalist into a spiral of self doubt: she lost her voice and developed what she has described as a “psychosomatic illness”. She suspected her career might be over.

Jackson has since rebuilt her confidence and regained her falsetto — but anyone parsing her new LP for references to the torturous circumstances in which it was assembled is likely to feel underwhelmed. Even more so than La Roux’s ’80s-steeped first record, Trouble In Paradise, is a collection that bolts together disparate influences and somehow succeeds in making what should resemble an uneasy hodgepodge into something shimmeringly original.

During her time away, Jackson was clearly staying abreast of pop’s ever-mutating trends: ‘Tropical Chancer’ is a gauzy riff on Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’, complete with a Nile Rodgers-style riff; ‘Let Me Down Gently’ resembles a smart, sinuous remaining of Pharrell’s ‘Happy’.

Overall, though, Jackson is more comfortable glancing over her shoulder than dwelling in the present: ‘Uptight Downtown’ is audibly shaped by the Amazonian funk of Grace Jones; ‘Silent Partner’ — the closest the record comes to a contemplative moment — radiates the gilded suppleness of Talking Heads.

It would be an overstatement to claim that Trouble In Paradise justified a wait of five years. Truly, did anyone miss her when she was gone? Or, for that matter, notice her absence? Nonetheless, the album has an agreeable directness. Forget what you’ve read about her trials and traumas — Jackson just wants you to know that she’s back.