Supervision

As an exercise in reclaiming control, in setting out her stall, it is a definite success, a hand-made pop exercise in an era dominated by algorithmic marketing plans. As a listening experience, though, it’s somewhat limited and frustratingly repetitive, ultimately paling next to La Roux’s previous heights.

Now a certified pop vet, La Roux returns with a work that translates the hard-earned lessons of the past decade into another collection of radio-ready dance-pop whose best tracks manage to sound timeless and topical at the same time. It’s an eminently listenable album, and her best shot in years at recapturing some of those triumphs for herself.

It’s all largely inoffensive and wholly listenable. Which is fine, but we’ve come to expect more from La Roux.

There are sublime moments - International Women Of Leisure, for instance, and Do You Feel, a homage to first ladies of disco songwriting such as Evelyn King and Gwen Guthrie - but other tracks, though taut and tight, become repetitive. [Mar 2020, p.92]

Supervision is at times frustrating – an avoidable misstep here, an overindulgence there. But it also contains some of La Roux’s best music to date, music that’s witty, danceable and endearing all in one.

Despite the album’s lack of big splashes, it still lands like a trip to Florida in February. And at only eight-songs-long, it’s endlessly digestible. Snow, sleet and seasonal affective disorder may rage on, but Supervision is pure warmth.

On Supervision, Jackson is at her strongest, both sonically and vocally. She has, for lack of a better term, found her groove: from the pulsing disco rhythms on "Do You Feel" to the synthpop breakup anthem "Gullible Fool", La Roux is once again proving that there's still an audience and a market for music that is fuelled by nostalgic sounds.

The LP's monotonous back half leaves Jackson running to stand still. [Apr 2020, p.111]

There’s no doubt Jackson is gradually carving out a left-of-centre niche, with a retro sound that is cleverly evocative and curiously idiosyncratic rather than just derivative.

Supervision is certainly not a bad album, but it’s a far cry from the bristling pop genius of Jackson’s best work.

On her third, La Roux shows that she can write a melody like few others in the business today, but it’s hard to look past how similar each song really is.

Overall, there's a real sense that La Roux is on autopilot, resulting in a ‘samey’ sound that struggles to hold the listener’s attention.