La Roux’s Elly Jackson Sets The Record Straight On Split With Ben Langmaid

Robbie Daw | July 14, 2014 8:03 am

Five years ago La Roux released their brilliant, Grammy-winning self-titled debut, scored a massive global hit with “Bulletprooof” and then seemingly disappeared. Of course, you only had to do a bit of digging here and there over the past half-decade to see that Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid at least attempted to knock out their sophomore LP. “Good news, La Roux fans — there are finally a few scraps of info about the duo’s upcoming endeavors,” we wrote rather hopefully back in December 2011. “It seems Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid are holed up in a studio in the English countryside working on the follow-up… We’re guessing we probably won’t be hearing the album until sometime in late 2012.”

Now Jackson has done an interview with The Sun where she details the why recording came to a halt and says that the only time the former duo have spoken since was during a bit of legal wrangling a month ago.

“The moment I realised it wasn’t working was one afternoon in the barn studio we worked in. We had been desperately trying to record the guitar part of ‘Kiss And Not Tell’… It was frustrating,” Jackson tells the British newspaper. “Then we finally got this great sound and I did the best guitar performance I’ve ever done. But Ben didn’t want it and that turned into a huge argument.”

“He left that night and that was the last time we saw each other, bar sorting out the legal things a month ago. The partnership was over… I don’t want to sit here and slate anyone and I fear that is where it would go. We are not on good terms at all, in any way, shape or form.”

Jackson continues, and in doing so she pulls the curtain back a bit on Langmaid’s actual involvement in La Roux:

“I would plainly say in interviews that I play all the parts. He doesn’t even play an instrument but I wouldn’t say that because I would never have been that blunt – you can’t say anything because it makes you look petty so you end up shutting up. I would say we co-wrote and co-produced but some people would just say he wrote all the parts and he produced – that classic male/female thing which became infuriating. It did make me quite bitter.”

Sigh. Breakups…they’re never fun, are they?

The good news is that La Roux’s second album, Trouble in Paradise, finally sees the light of day next week (July 21), and judging from the songs we’ve heard so far — “Let Me Down Gently,” “Uptight Downtown” and “Tropical Chancer” — Jackson is looking to have another critically-acclaimed hit on her hands.

Will you be picking up a copy of Trouble In Paradise?

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