When I first moved to New York, La Roux’s “Bulletproof,” an anthem for shaking off bad love and entering new chapters of one’s life, blasted from every bar and club that my friends and I wandered into.
That was half a decade ago, though, so much in the same way that I’m not the same person now who hung out at Williamsburg hipster meat markets dancing to MGMT’s “Kids” until 3 a.m., La Roux (a.k.a. Elly Jackson) is far from singing the same refrain.
“‘Bulletproof’ is a whole thing of its own,” Jackson told MTV News of her hit song. “I knew I never wanted to write another song like ‘Bulletproof.’ I don’t think I’d be able to make the record I’ve made now if I had made another ‘Bulletproof’ since ‘Bulletproof.’”
La Roux’s sophomore record, Trouble in Paradise — her first in five years — drops on July 21, and it’s streaming as of today on iTunes Radio. She cut ties with past collaborator Ben Langmaid this time around, working instead with producer/engineer Ian Sherwin, and that decision — along with vocal issues — made the road to this record a difficult one.
An album that Jackson said was supposed to sound like “what people in the ’70s thought the future would look and sound like,” the collection of tunes is about “all about the darkness lurking behind the most beautiful tune, the doubts in even the happiest of relationships, and trouble in all its forms,” according to a release.
Quite the departure from the singer’s bubbly 2009 hit.
“Three and half-minute pop songs are great and there are some on the record, but I didn’t want to spend my whole life doing that,” Jackson previously told MTV News. “I didn’t even want to spend the rest of life having No. 1s or anything like that. I just want to do what I want to do as an artist and that didn’t involve doing that again.”
Listen To Trouble In Paradise Now!
Brenna Ehrlich
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