--- description: It's been five years since La Roux had a surprise hit with "Bulletproof" — and now, they're back with something mellower, which is "like a morose flip of fellow synthpopper Robyn’s 'Call Your Girlfriend'" title: La Roux "Let Me Down Gently": Single Review & Listen image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt694b454bd176add8/69868eebe53aba4ce74d2872/168985191.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # La Roux Forges a Comeback With "Let Me Down Gently": Listen by [Katherine St. Asaph](/author/katherine-st-asaph/) ## Katherine St. Asaph Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2014 3:46 PM CUT  Elly Jackson of La Roux performs at Electric Daisy Carnival in 2013 Elly Jackson of La Roux performs at Electric Daisy Carnival in 2013Daniel Zuchnik—Getty Images by [Katherine St. Asaph](/author/katherine-st-asaph/) ## Katherine St. Asaph Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2014 3:46 PM CUT Here’s a minor milestone for you: La Roux’s debut album is now five years old. It doesn’t quite seem it, probably because most of the British group’s accolades came well after the album’s release: a sleeper US radio hit (“Bulletproof”) in 2010, a surprise Grammy in 2011, what seemed at the time like the most success any of their ‘80s-throwback synthpop peers would attain without becoming Lady Gaga. (Another sign 2009 was a very different place: Lady Gaga used to be seen as La Roux’s peer.) But the success was short-lived; “Bulletproof,” despite becoming La Roux’s biggest hit both worldwide and back home in the UK, didn’t get a substantial follow-up, and new material was sparse. “Unless we manage to write a record in two weeks I don’t think there will be anything in terms of a second record for a while,” vocalist Elly Jackson told NME – again – five years ago. After all that time, “Let Me Down Gently” is the first that’s been heard from the new record (not counting some [live material](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTm3NYxMrdY "undefined") in 2013)_,_ tentatively titled _Trouble in Paradise_. It’s far less splashy than most of _La Roux_: an ambivalent-attached breakup narrative, like a morose flip of fellow synthpopper Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend.” The track sounds it too: flanged synth washes, moody melodies, brooding background vocals, Jackson pained and aloof amid it all – singing, crucially, with little of her usual quirk – and, the clincher, a false stop in the middle before a full-on breakdown, sax and tears on the dance floor. 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