Throughout this decade, it seems that pop music has looked back to the 1980s more than any other time period, almost to the point where it's become tiresome in 2009. Rihanna famously sampled Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" for her 2006 hit song, "SOS", to great effect - but for every success, there's been eight or nine failures. Perhaps that's because the '80s are so distinct, so much so that referencing them for a song or even an album can appear cheap and redundant. Britain's latest import, La Roux, tackles this problem head on through its self-titled debut - a tightly executed set of 12 brazenly synthesized songs.
Attitude is key to La Roux, which is fronted by lead woman Elly Jackson, whose voice is as sharp as the lyrics she sings. Almost every track highlights Jackson putting on a brave fa