Reddy to go: Elly Jackson’s soaring vocals (and huge hair) dominate the album

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Rating: 4/5

When the Pokémon Tilda Swinton from Herne Hill sang that she was going in for the kill, she wasn’t joking. Her debut album slaughters the competition, nailing it again and again.

La Roux is the first artist of 2009 that a whole generation can fall in love with and call their own. The soaring vocals, emotive lyrics and skittish rhythms are an intoxicating brew, even if it does slightly rip off Yazoo and The Human League. The weird androgynous look, orange hair and interesting garb are great, too, even if they do slightly rip off Eurythmics and ABC.

Gallery: Kings and queens of quiff

As well as being a ­pseudonym for 21-year-old Elly Jackson (singer, songwriter, shoulder pads, hairdo), La Roux is also a band featuring producer Ben Langmaid (the bloke you will never see, but should not underestimate). His ­ability to switch from angular arcade beats to heart-­wrenching synths is as ­important to La Roux as ­sparrow-strangling falsetto.

This debut whips through a relationship, from intense longing, obsession, passion and rejection and the hits past, present and future loom large. Quicksand, In for the Kill, Bulletproof, I’m Not Your Toy and Fascination cement the La Roux blueprint: other-worldly disorientating electro disco with a penchant for waltzes, fake Caribbean steel drums and even more bleeps than BPM.

It’s not all clubbing confectionery, though. Ballad Cover My Eyes is a majestic approximation of a lovelorn lady robot breaking down and sobbing into her circuit boards while a church choir buck up the mood from the pews.

Jackson needs to work on her stagecraft, which is a bit limp at the moment, and watch some of the stuff that comes out of her outspoken gob. As far as the music goes, she shouldn’t change a thing – ditto that bloke, what’s-his-name, Langmaid.