La Roux received generally positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 76, based on 16 reviews. Luke Turner of
NME raved that "with this astounding debut, an unassuming 21-year-old from
SW2 has revitalised a forgotten form to make one of the finest forward-thinking British pop albums of recent memory." Steve Harris of
Clash viewed the album as "[t]he ultimate expression of '80s love" and stated that "apart from a couple of later tracks, the album is far from
filler and still delivers blow after blow of superb songcraft." Heather Phares of
AllMusic opined that "La Roux's dedication to their aesthetic makes this an album where the songs are variations on a theme, and on the rare occasion where the songwriting isn't razor-sharp, the style threatens to overtake the substance. However, that devotion also makes La Roux a standout, not just among the many other '80s revivalists, but the entire late-2000s pop landscape."
Rolling Stones
Rob Sheffield commented, "Along with co-writer and fellow synth dude Ben Langmaid, [Elly Jackson is] ruling U.K. radio with splashy dance hits about sex and betrayal", highlighting "Bulletproof" as the album's "definitive gem". Talia Kraines of
BBC Music wrote, "That shrill vocal might mean the [...] album is not something you're likely to listen to all in one go in a high pressure situation, but it's one jam-packed with killer pop song after killer pop song."
Slant Magazine reviewer Paul Schrodt described La Roux's sound as "frosty, uniquely British, deliberately affected, and anything but casual", but felt that "it's the band's attempts at vulnerability ('Cover My Eyes') that make for the most insipid listens."
Pitchforks Joshua Love noted that "La Roux delivers icy but irresistible throwback pop that hearkens back explicitly to fellow femme-led Brits
Yazoo and the
Eurythmics."
The Guardians
Alexis Petridis wrote, "The sound is authentically tinny, bass being something that most synthpop pioneers seemed to think the gleaming '
Music of the Future' could do without. The rhythms tend to a clipped, funkless boom-crash that listeners of a certain vintage may find difficult to hear without picturing a school disco dancefloor packed with fourth-formers trying to 'do' robotics."
Peter Paphides of
The Times expressed, "For the almost militant purity of its execution though, La Roux inspires a peculiar sort of awe. Exclusively using keyboards is one thing, but the
Brixton-based duo have gone a step further, purging their sound of any keyboard noise that bears even a passing resemblance to what your
Jeremy Clarkson sort of music fan would refer to as a 'real' instrument."
Simon Price was critical of the album in his review for
The Independent, stating that "[m]uch of the time, La Roux sound strangely distorted, like the backing music from an early 1990s
Sega Mega Drive game turned up to 11."
Accolades La Roux was shortlisted for the 2009
Mercury Prize. On 13 February 2011, the album won
Best Electronic/Dance Album at the
53rd Annual Grammy Awards. ==Commercial performance==