In July, Louisa Rose Allen released Body Talk, the debut single from her second album as Foxes. Girly 80s synthpop via driving, handclapping French house, it was one of the best songs of the year. Just as impressive were its lyrics, which saw Allen in the aftermath of a relationship, oscillating between the pull of a lingering, debilitating bond and feelings of euphoric release. The same conflict runs through the whole of All I Need, a record that casts off the platitudes of her first album to detail the cognitive dissonance of being in an intense but unhealthy relationship, in accomplished and slightly disturbing fashion. Sonically, though, the album plays it a lot safer than Body Talk promised. With the notable exception of Cruel, a track anchored gratifyingly around a staggered Eurodancey vocal sample, Allen tends to favour either dreary mid-tempo balladry or unremarkable electropop. Her lyrics may be personal, but the package as a whole feels disappointingly generic.
