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Monday Music: Cover My Eyes

8 Feb 10 | Re: Another dimension of new synthist(s)

Monday again, Monday Music again, and this week I’m writing about Cover My Eyes by La Roux. There’s only a 30 second clip on We7, but a YouTube user has somehow obtained the rights to the whole thing, or you can listen on Spotify if you’re one of their lucky initiates.

This is an album track from the album La Roux, which is puzzling as it’s by far the best track on there. What’s more, it shows you another dimension to the singer (sorry, group) that you don’t get from the singles - it’s slow, reflective and very heartfelt, with that Hot Chip wistful-electro feel. I’ve seen La Roux’s (sorry, Elly Jackson’s) voice described as flawed, but this is one of those cases where a less-than-perfect voice adds to the song, as the slightly strained quality gives it a picturesque fragility that, say, Celine Dion just wouldn’t bring to the table. Like Rihanna on Unfaithful - the singer’s struggle with the song becomes a part of the story.

It’s a song about being heartbroken, and the moments when you have to face the fact that you are heartbroken (if you are), like Walk On By or the 35th poem of Petrarch’s Canzoniere. What makes it moving is that the delivery is so matter-of-fact - it’s like someone looking you dead in the eye and simply saying “it’s all over” - no melodrama, no theatrics, just a blunt, low-key statement of an inescapably bad situation. Of course the song is about not being able to look you dead in the eye, but that’s really the point: it’s a view right into the psyche, where you can see emotions that would normally be kept private.

So in summation, it’s much better than I’m Not Your Toy, it should have been a single, and if you’re wondering whether to get the album you should definitely factor it in. It’s a gem.

Posted by ROBYN FENTY at 18:27

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