BBC Entertainment News named the first artist featured in its “BBC Sound of 2009” countdown series: Roux, the stage name/alter ego of 20-year-old fiery-haired electro-pop songstress Elly Jackson (pictured) and her behind-the-scenes production partner Ben Langmaid.
The latest sassy lass to emerge from London sets her perfectly pop vocals against heavily synthesized beats that are straight out of the skating ring ‘80s, apparently her intention. From Jackson's RMD Magazine interview:
"Electro music is so throwaway now. The lyrics don’t mean anything and it should be about how the words sound together rather then the overall sound of the songs. Proper songs are really emotional, like Why by Annie Lennox,” says the Eurythmics, Prince, CSS and Cure fan. “That’s a really emotional tune, but it’s all done on synth. We’ve got a couple of electro and synth ballads and we’re not scared to show a vulnerable side. There’s very few people doing it."
BBC's early January "Sound" countdown series was launched seven years ago as a way to find the hottest up-and-coming talent for the New Year, musical acts that haven’t (up to the point of the countdown) had a top 20 single or album. The list is based on tips from 134 leading UK critics and broadcasters, and is usually pretty dead-on. Among the featured talent of ‘08 were Santogold, Glasvegas, The Ting Tings, MGMT, Black Kids, and Vampire Weekend, all artists who managed to make a splash (and several end-of-the-year lists) in both the UK and America.
This year’s list has been scaled back from 10 top artists to five, who were selected from a list of 15 potential artists published last month. The remaining four featured artists will be revealed every day this week, with the number one announced on Friday.
Is La Roux worthy of the countdown? I'm not so sure. I have a hard time separating what she's doing from what every pop songstress already did in the '80s. Plus, she's openly admitted that she's trying to bring back that era's "epic" style — which apparently means returning to cheesy over-emotiveness — and even taking personal credit for leading the '80s pop revival simply because she thinks she takes it more seriously than the other 1,000 artists who are doing the same thing. I guess time will tell.
This article appears in Dec 31, 2008 – Jan 6, 2009.