The overall result is just fabulous: if this album doesn’t become the soundtrack of your summer, you’ll be missing out.
It's been a tortuous half-decade that's found Jackson riven with anxiety in the aftermath of her debut, to the point where she couldn't even sing, but she comes out reborn.
There’s a notable evolution here, and we see the lone Jackson strive for something you can sink your teeth into over the course of a few days, weeks, month, rather than something you can insufflate at a club in the space of a few minutes.
Even taking into account the creative tensions that created it, though, ‘Trouble In Paradise’ is her most exciting, and immediately likeable work yet.
She's abandoned the intimacy of a lonely girl and her machines for full-band funk, and where her vocals had been dry and often solitary, here they're overdubbed into an airy choir resembling that of Tina Weymouth and her sisters of the Tom Tom Club.
Despite pushing the sound of LA Roux forward from the debut, Trouble In Paradise shares its hit packed qualities.
Trouble In Paradise somehow wins in a way that deems the comparison to its predecessor a moot point. Rather than drafting in its momentum, Trouble sets off on a new path entirely because there’s no other path to take.
On La Roux's second LP, her vintage synth-pop magnificence (see 2009's hit "Bulletproof") has warmed into the sort of electro-disco drama you imagine the Daft Punk robots blasting as they cruise down Highway 1.
Whilst the singles might not be as big as 'Bulletproof' or 'In for the Kill', Jackson is offering up something much more substantial and satisfying this time around.
Trouble in Paradise proves Jackson is still better than many of her contemporaries when it comes to making fizzy electro-pop.
Still a pop record at the end of the day, the album is not without its share of weak lyrics.
For all Jackson's personal struggle and exploration, Paradise feels like a safe record, calibrated for the comfort of an imagined audience, working at its best when it becomes almost invisible—the accessory to the experience and not the experience itself.
Here, Jackson's attempts at mixing carefree sauntering with emotive bursts leads to a 'win some, lose some' situation.
While their may be nothing quite as earworm-worthy as “Bulletproof” on this album, she makes a strong case for an artist to keep listening to looking into the future.
first listen //
a cute record, i really liked 3 tracks off it (and the production on 'kiss and not tell'), the rest did not move me that much/at all.
fav tracks : silent partner, paradise is you, let me down gently
I think I'll talk about my point of view of how I saw this project in me, Trouble In Paradise second album of the british band La Roux, for me the debut was their top project because I lived so much with it and I felt and still feel it a project very close to me, both the lyrics and production or because of what was happening in my life at that time that I discovered them... Trouble In Paradise I listened to it for the first time a year ago or less and the first listen was good, I gave it ... read more
it gets better with each listen i swear
tracks that i would like to mention: let me down gently, silent partner, uptight downtown, kiss and not tell, paradise is you, cruel sexuality, sexotheque, tropical chancer
tracks that i would not like to mention: the feeling
(81 => 88)
1 | Uptight Downtown 4:22 | 93 |
2 | Kiss and Not Tell 3:53 | 92 |
3 | Cruel Sexuality 4:15 | 90 |
4 | Paradise Is You 5:11 | 92 |
5 | Sexotheque 4:18 | 92 |
6 | Tropical Chancer 3:31 | 89 |
7 | Silent Partner 7:01 | 94 |
8 | Let Me Down Gently 5:40 | 95 |
9 | The Feeling 4:06 | 75 |
#1 | / | Time Out London |
#4 | / | Digital Spy |
#5 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
#6 | / | NME |
#6 | / | The Guardian |
#15 | / | musicOMH |
#23 | / | The Telegraph |
#34 | / | No Ripcord |
#36 | / | Uncut |
#40 | / | The Needle Drop |