This selection was picked by Gen Z son.

Gen X Dad says… often times when I’m out at a bar, a record shop, or coffee house (not recently of course) a song comes over the air that I’ve not heard before. Frequently I get distracted and forget to ask about it or look up what it is. Thankfully that wasn’t the case when in the before time (not much more than a month ago that is) I was sitting in one of our great local coffee houses and Automatic Driver came on.

Supervision is the third album from La Roux, but is essentially a solo album by remaining co-founder Elly Jackson. She wrote all the tracks here, played most of the instruments herself as well as singing, and co-produced and mixed the album. According to one interview she noted that she wanted the album to be a regular length – between 40 and 48 minutes – because she isn’t a fan of super long albums. Her goal with that is realized well here across the eight tracks, though a couple of them could benefit from some trimming.

La Roux’s sound is a familiar yet still interesting mix of 80s synth pop, 70s funk and soul (as noted by Gen Z son below), and some tried and true dance floor grooves. Because of this it might be easy to write it all off as a lightweight diversion, but there’s hidden depth in some of Jackson’s lyrical content once you get past the infectious riffs and pulsing beats.

If Automatic Driver doesn’t make you want to get up and move check your pulse. Other highlights for me are I.W.O.L. (which stands for International Woman of Leisure), Otherside, and the closing Gullible. Worth checking out.

Gen Z son says… La Roux, a synth-pop act from the U.K., was formed in 2006 by Elly Jackson. For their first 2 records, they toured as a full band, but in 2020, Supervision arrived. The titular album saw a departure from the collaborations that made up Jackson’s previous records, and was more of a solo project.

Anyways, on Supervision, Jackson incorporates elements of 70s funk/soul music, such as the likes of Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind, And Fire. The lyrical subjects include such things as self-pride in International Woman Of Leisure, a complicated relationship in Automatic Driver, and a love song to finish it all off, Gullible Fool.

In Conclusion, while Supervision was a big change in style for the La Roux project, it still proved that Jackson could write a great tune. Oh, and thanks to our local coffee shop for first introducing me to Automatic Driver.