In The Middle
Album reviews La Roux Album Supervision
The infectious, high pitched 2009 lyrics of La Roux’s ‘Bulletproof’ are etched onto the brains of the nation: the ultimate throwback tune and a classic 80’s-butactually-noughties track. And while her new album, Supervision, likely won’t bring the same level of fame, it certainly brings a similar vibe: synthy, neon, electropop, just as captivating as before. The album is carried by the strength of singles ‘International Woman of Leisure’, ‘Automatic Driver’ and ‘Gullible Fool’, all of which an possess energy that makes them almost impossible to listen to without at
least tapping your foot, and in most cases full on dancing. These tracks make for the ultimate shower songs, and it’s guaranteed that the upbeat melodies will be stuck in your head after a couple listens. The rest of the album is good too, if a bit same-y. Supervision is kaleidoscopic: mesmerising, hypnotising but sometimes blurred together. Most tracks have a similar tempo and the same synthy foundation, making Supervision a little repetitive at times. But despite that, Elly Jackson’s remarkable vocal range and the difference of the album’s retrospective sound among
today’s pop scene bring a freshness which is reviving. Supervision falls just slightly short of La Roux’s previous successes but, having said that, they left big shoes to fill. The whole album is definitely still worth a listen, if not just for the impressive vocals. La Roux might be stuck in the 80’s, but Elly Jackson’s voice is timeless. Isabella Wigley
Green day Album Father Of All...
6
Father of All is just… boring. A product of an aged band and a style that has aged with them, Green Day bring us their latest album, teeming with insipid, tired rock clichés and unimaginative guitarwork. Stuck in 1994, the whole thing is about drinking or drugs or women or being really cool and ‘dangerous’. Father of All is utterly purist in its pursuit of a mainstream rock record – resulting in a serious deficiency of inspiration, or originality. It’s 26 minutes of soundtracks for car adverts. The album cover is emblematic of the record; a rehash of American Idiot’s iconic heart-handgrenade, admitting Green Day are entirely reliant on nostalgia and legacy to earn streams and sales. The throwback is now adorned with a unicorn obscuring the full album title, ‘Father of all Motherfuckers’, because nothing
says punk rock like commercial viability. This nostalgia bait is continued repeatedly throughout Father of All, with musical references throughout and lyrics that sound just similar enough to be throwbacks to old Green Day songs. It could just as easily be lazy repurposing, though. Billie Joe Armstrong sustains a strained falsetto throughout the entirety, combined with a filter that makes for fuzzy, irritating vocals, and the impression you might be listening to a demo, not the studio release. Most songs sound very similar, ‘Fire, Ready, Aim’ and ‘Sugar Youth’ sounding particularly alike. ‘Sugar’ in that song, by the way, is a very intelligent, well-veiled metaphor for cocaine. Most of the lyrics are equally deft.
The issue above all else is that the music is, essentially, ‘correct’. It’s not bad, just entirely inconsequential. ‘I was a teenage teenager’ are the same two verses repeated to an unchanging wall of basic guitar rock, with a chorus that says the name of the song and rhymes a lot and is, all in all, exemplary of a song attempting to be catchy. It feels constructed. Whilst the album is not consistently terrible throughout, it suffers in contrast to Green Day’s wider discography. With regards to the genre as a whole, Father of All fails to find a space or gather enough quality to construct its own. Father of All is two things; seemingly a cash grab, and entirely out of touch. tom Poole
