The music thats sending her onto pops big table may be channeling the spirit of The Human League and Yazoo, but Elly Jackson - as shes known off stage - first discovered music in her dads Neil Young and Nick Drake records. From here she picked up a guitar and started writing her own music, debuting early versions of future electronic hits like -Quicksand- on the South London folk scene. Well, she corrects, theres not really a scene, just a bunch of people calling each other sell-outs. All they will listen to was Jeff Buckley, and I thought it was so boring I couldnt stand it. Im not the kind of performer who likes to sit still with a guitar, but that was all I had. -Fortunately, as she strummed away at one house party, a songwriter called Ben Langmaid was watching and soon they were studio partners. -One day me and Ben were working on a song and starting playing with some of the synths lying around at Bens. We put a synth line over the acoustic track we had been working on and it just took off. From that day the guitar started to seem a little obsolete to us.--
Combining both visual glamour and sonic drama, La Roux have made the oddest of things, a populist album which doesnt patronize the populous and is undoubtedly one of the debut albums of the year.
