La Roux encourage phone sex in "Kiss & Not Tell"

La Roux paid homage to one of history's most durable industries and channels an '80s sex infomercial in the music video for her fun retro-disco song "Kiss And Not Tell," from British electro-pop sensation's chart-topping sophomore album, "Trouble in Paradise." The phone sex hotline has seen its share of ups and downs over the decades, but it remains an impact player in the pay-for-pleasure circuit after all these years. The sound of a human voice will never go out of style.

In keeping with her own brand of neon cool, La Roux focuses on the kitschy phones of the '80s for the video, which featuring every kind of telephone you can imagine, an impressive cadre of vintage phones in the shape of keyboard synthesizers, quirky hamburgers, miniature piano phone, and Full House–esque big red lips make appearances as a variety of anonymous heavy breathers steam up on the line with Elly Jackson of La Roux's phone operator. Both playful and upbeat, the video complements La Roux's vintage synth-driven sound and is a treat for fans of '80s infomercials.

Singing in a lower register and with more controlled tones than on La Roux's debut record, Jackson sounds like a different person on this song. "I wasn't just an angry young girl when I made the first album, I was f---ing FURIOUS," she laughed to Q magazine, "That's why I sang in a register only dogs could hear." So what changed? "I'm not in pain any more," Jackson replied. "The first album was all, 'Ohhh, you don't love me.' I would drive to Ben's studio in tears every day. It's different this time because I didn't have that ache to write - I'm not writing songs to say, 'Yeah, that's what I f---ing feel about you!' I'm writing about characters instead."

The Alexander Brown-directed colorful clip is impeccably styled, hitting all the right aesthetics as we see striking red-haired singer is the face of an erotic hotline as she plays the role as a late night television host, inviting viewers to call in to do some kissing without any telling. The number onscreen have the option to listen to the song, or leave a "cheeky" message in order to interact with other people and have a little "pleasure" of their own (phone sex). After some thinking about, people are convinced by La Roux, and shows us a male and a female reaching "ecstasy."

La Roux return with moody 'Let Me Down Gently'

La Roux (aka Elly Jackson) made a rather subdued return to the music scene with languid synth-ballad "Let Me Down Gently." The sparse but sprawling anthem was soon relegated to buzz track status but that hasn't stopped the duo filming a suitably moody video starring frontwoman Jackson herself, her amazing red hair and a rather lovely sunrise. The art of delayed gratification in a music video is not one that is often practiced these days, but it is the crux of the first visuals we get from La Roux's long-delayed return to music.
"Let Me Down Gently" is a teaser track for the English synth-pop act's upcoming sophomore studio album, "Trouble In Paradise," which, a rep has confirmed, will drop on July 8. In an interview with Billboard, La Roux said this album is musically supposed to touch upon "what people in the 1970s thought that the future was going to look and sound like."
"Let Me Down Gently," a breathy exorcism of moody melodies and broken-hearted soul-purging, does everything a breakup anthem should, tapping into the frayed clusterfuck of anger, upset and desperate bargaining that comes with the end of a relationship. "You're not my life but I want you in it," Jackson bellows over a pulsating 80s keyboard line and thundering electro drums. Then there's the matter of a sax solo that grabs even the stoniest of hearts by the scruff of the neck, shaking you to the brink of hysterics.
The striking electro-pop pixie returns with a confident new look and sound. We love the lush, layered feel of her first video, director Oliver Hadlee Pearch, who puts Jackson in a dark room by herself (she does anguish surprisingly well) for the first half of the video and break free from a claustrophobic cell to roll like a fog down the British countryside and soaks up the sun that allows the camera to soar over the countryside on what optically appears to be a train track for the second half. The video is fairly simple, stylish and understated. In other words, a tidy start to the band's "Trouble In Paradise" campaign. Watch below and take a pensive stroll through the countryside with Elly Jackson.