La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Mix)

oh yeah and a disservice to pop fans who don't want to deconstruct anything, too

lex is boycotting "lil" kim on grammar principles now too

bah beat me to the point

Don't get him started on Mötley Crüe.

He constantly diverged from pop!

what does this mean? surely everything he did was considered as and under it as an umbrella term.

when people pine for a new Prince they're talking about an absolute 'does everything - mostly brilliantly' act and it's true there's been a figure like that missing since he set a modern standard. but i suppose people on his level only come thru once in a generation.

Not sure where the idea that Prince was totally pop comes from, he was more like Bowie

What a bad voice.

ah yes Bowie the hugely famous and successful pop star

Fair enough, I suppose Eric Clapton is a pop star too

Clapton is primarily a rock guitarist. Bowie is a CHAMELEONIC performer of excellent pop songs such as 'Starman', 'Modern Love' and, of course, 'Little Wonder'.

You Look Wonderful Tonight

... not making a point, just paying you a compliment

you are all missing the point of how bad this is. I'm still completely at a loss to why this woman is making music, who is her label owner boyfriend? I was hoping this was one of the hardcore sounding tunes skreams been playing out the last couple of months but a dubstep kosheen is completely OTM

this woman and Kosheen singer's voice are so different tho that despite some conceptual similarities i'm having trouble imagining them singing each other's best known songs

http://cache0.bigcartel.com/product_images/1930659/300.png

should have dropped a bet on how long it was before kate moross got involved.

that horse has an adam's apple

had the misfortune of hearing the original song in a shop the other day. ugh.

i really like the remix. everything is so painfully simple it really highlights that vocal. it sounds like it took about 5 minutes to make.

so i guess its a question of whether or not you can put up with the vocal. yes its overblown, epic and if you know who she is... annoying i guess. but i heard this without knowing anything about her, thinking it was just some unknown vocalist skream got to sing on a track. it'd seem silly to turn around and be all oh rite she's a dick, don't like this anymore.

the deal breaker is really the "doin it for a thriiiillllllll..." bit in terms of actual worst singing moment. hard to imagine her looking like she was doing anything for a thrill so far too.

jesus that was bad.

Song of the year so far imo.

if by song of the year you mean suggest ban then yes

- her name. you JUST CAN'T SAY 'LA ROUX' holy shit, you idiot woman
- her opinions. "girls shouldn't play guitars or drums cuz they look butch" - please someone set courtney love on this dumb bitch
- her face. specifically the same blank, unsmiling, unchanging facial expression she wears in every photo and every video, as if it is the same thing as possessing artistic mystique. she looks like a sulky teenage girl, and not in a good way
- her voice. as blank, unsmiling and unchanging as her face. shrill, grating, nails on blackboard. one of the most purely awful sounds i've ever heard. obv she makes no concessions to "singing in key" or subtlety or nuance or emotion. completely charmless
- her music. just let the 80s gooooooo

― lex pretend, Tuesday, March 24, 2009 12:27 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

More half of these points have nothing to do with music and to be fair, you should give her a break attitude wise. After all she IS ALMOST a teenager.

The shrill, overblown voice may be a turn off for many but not for me. And maybe I'm tone-deaf but her vocals sound completely on-key to me. Don't know it's Autotuned, but from the live clips I've seen on youtube, it sounds like it's not... not that it matters.

yeah, I don't know why people are not able to differentiate the singer with stupid answers from the fucking great song which is this one.

to be fair, half my points were entirely about la roux' terrible music, and i don't know why people think that being annoyed by the persona of a singer artist entirely talentless idiot as well as her music somehow invalidates the criticism of the sound. cheap, rinky-dink 80s starter kit casios aren't as interesting to criticise but they still sound fucking annoying

the rinky dink 80s starter kit casio sound is completely absent from the skream remix though, which is why for me it's so much better than anything else she's attached to. i have no idea why i love the vocals though, its like they're being deliberately abrasive, way too shrill and manufactured but they just work

the original is unforgivable shite though

i don't know why people think that being annoyed by the persona of a singer artist entirely talentless idiot as well as her music somehow invalidates the criticism of the sound.

It doesn't, it just makes it more obviously subjective. I agree though that if you don't like Elly's voice listening to La Roux must be a painful experience. Oddly I like it for the same reasons you hate it (except being off-key, which I don't think it is).

I'd say so far "Quicksand" is very good and "In For The Kill" is a bit boring, not unforgivable shite, by any means.

liking/hating music is kind of inherently subjective, dude

though she is intolerable, that is a fact

I guess I didn't really mean subjective, I meant biased.

Her persona is 100% open for criticism because that persona is so obviously a very intentional aesthetic choice to match the music.

yep, we all agree with that. I just don't hate her persona.

Just heard the song and her voice is incredibly annoying.

There are people out there who think this person can sing. That scares me.

Never listened to the original mix. But it seems Skream, as usual, did a great job.

Anyway if the autotune criticism were applied to every (new) singer here in ILM...

I just went to see La Roux live and they were very good. Elly is one of the best live singers I've seen... and very nice too.

Such catty vitriol! I mean, "at a loss to why this woman is making music, who is her label owner boyfriend" -- really, on ILM? Comments tended to be a bit more kind and considered here in the early 2000s, but what can you do.

Saw them tonight in SF and Elly gave a fantastic performance. Her vocals were outstanding live, and she had great stage presence, banter with the crowd, confidence. I was struck by how Quicksand and In for the Kill were actually two of the weakest tracks live, vocally. There were three songs in the middle of the set, "Fascination" one of them, that stood out as particularly powerful and better showcases for her range. A few of her embellishments had the whole crowd cheering (admittedly, that's not so hard to do in a crowd of 18-and-up kids).

The elements they do use from the '80s are terrific and considered -- there's a Vincent Price-esque interlude in one song that brought a big grin. The live show's something to reconsider for those who've given her a pass. Once she gets warmed up, she burns; though she doesn't have nearly the oomph, the last song, "Bulletproof," reminded me a bit of Alison Moyet. The autotuning is a concern, but if they've managed to capture her voice properly on record, it could end up high on my end of the year list.

http://cache0.bigcartel.com/product_images/1930659/300.png

I need this shirt like now

I remember hearing "Quicksand" back when it was said to be a demo for Britney Spears' Circus album... really good song.

New single "Bulletproof" should be more appealing/less annoying to people who complain about Elly's shrill voice. Personally I liked "Quicksand" and "In For The Kill" better:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_8038000/8038450.stm
She desperately needs a new makeup stylist though!

"I love the fact that it's not 80s - that was really what I wanted from this video. I don't want every video and every single thing from here on out to be this 80s recurring theme."

WTF it's TOTALLY a TRON/mid-80s Studio Line ad ripoff!

Lil' Silva remix is best.

Also the Wookie remix of "Bulletproof" is good.

Bulletproof is good, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWmE6LwowsQ

got the whole album today. i'm really digging it. i'm kind of surprised it's a "major big deal" as it does sound a little bit cheaper than say little boots or gaga's production, but as one who appreciates pop music, i think these songs are damn good. she has a very odd voice, and i wouldn't compare it to someone who can really belt it (kate bush, for instance), but it has a flinty, octave-above-the-music quality that i kind of find appealing. which is more than i can say for the generic vocals of boots or gaga or ladyhawke.

i quite like the cheap 80s sound tbh--it's less-is-more feel makes it feel clean and un-ornamental--and since i like her voice, i'm going to go out on a limb and say that this rivals electrik red as my favorite pop-sounding album this year.

favorite songs: "cover my eyes" (great slow jam with only a little reverb on her voice... really nice), "tigerlily" (she comes across as very aggressive/almost stalkery...) "fascination," "as if by magic" and, of course, "quicksand," which is a phenomenal pop song.

had a listen to itunes clips but the sound seems just too thin throughout. i want propaganda-esque drama.

this is an uninteresting bit of wub-wub-wub even by skream standards

lex fairly otm on this thread

also who is ilx user 'Dare'?

Such catty vitriol! I mean, "at a loss to why this woman is making music, who is her label owner boyfriend" -- really, on ILM? Comments tended to be a bit more kind and considered here in the early 2000s, but what can you do.

Saw them tonight in SF and Elly gave a fantastic performance. Her vocals were outstanding live, and she had great stage presence, banter with the crowd, confidence. I was struck by how Quicksand and In for the Kill were actually two of the weakest tracks live, vocally. There were three songs in the middle of the set, "Fascination" one of them, that stood out as particularly powerful and better showcases for her range. A few of her embellishments had the whole crowd cheering (admittedly, that's not so hard to do in a crowd of 18-and-up kids).

The elements they do use from the '80s are terrific and considered -- there's a Vincent Price-esque interlude in one song that brought a big grin. The live show's something to reconsider for those who've given her a pass. Once she gets warmed up, she burns; though she doesn't have nearly the oomph, the last song, "Bulletproof," reminded me a bit of Alison Moyet. The autotuning is a concern, but if they've managed to capture her voice properly on record, it could end up high on my end of the year list.

― Dare, Friday, April 10, 2009 10:04 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark

i mean is this a real person y/n

hm. i dunno. seems like a real person to me; maybe they're taking the whole thing a bit seriously. i too like the vincent price thing on "tigerlily," if only because i'm having an mj moment like the rest of the world. i know it's pop music, but i'll defend it as good pop music.

also, not a big fan of the remix that this thread is about. i think i like la roux as an album, but felt a second la roux thread would be superfluous...

this year is kind of turning me against the idea of women making electronic music

actually, new thread

no don't

thx

Proper comeback single. Apparently "Lay me down gently" was just a buzz track. It's got Nile Rodgers' fingerprints all over it. Except I think he wasn't involved. I'm not sure about the vocals, but otherwise I love it.

i like "let me down gently" better for some reason but maybe it'll grow on me

Though I love "Sexoteque", and there's a couple of other decent tracks, the new album's definitely a step down from the first one

a friend recently recommended me their debut album and i was sceptical as i couldn't remember what they sounded like at all except remembering disliking the singles at the time but i was kinda shocked to find it some of the most viscerally unpleasant pop music i've ever heard. i have no idea how this album had multiple hits with its incredibly flimsy-feeling synthpop, mediocre hooks, and the way her voice sounds

the two big singles were legit great and the rest was serviceable enough

I suspect that, even though her second album was a massive improvement with some actually great singles, it being ignored by the media was a way to atone for her sins commited on that terrible debut.

"in for the kill" is a 10/10 classic to me

original obv not the remix

the true 2009 classic (the skream remix) that the nostalgia thread needs

Confession: I love love love Trouble in Paradise and I can’t believe there’s barely any discussion of it here

It’s super fun and it was an album I played a lot that summer. “Uptight Downtown” and “Sexoteque” were in heavy rotation at one of my bars and several people asked what it was, particularly with the former.

New single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS6egctCzqY

As much as I like Trouble In Paradise, I was expecting more of a departure, especially considering how long it's been. I'm not too impressed.

"in for the kill" is a 10/10 classic to me

Interview in the indie today is an interesting read

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/la-roux-interview-new-album-supervision-gay-lgbtq-elly-jackson-a9319376.html

I think I'm eternally fated to like La Roux more than almost anyone else does. New album's a bit of a step down from Trouble in Paradise but it still bangs. is there no room in this world for a (slightly) poor man's Christine and the Queens?

Her cover of "Mr. Natural" on the new Whyte Horses LP is pretty nice.