Hilary Duff

If Hilary Duff achieved nothing else with her reasonably brief foray into the pop world, she at least provided us with retrospective evidence that not all former Disney child stars wind up making career moves quite as dubious as Miley Cyrus has been the past couple of years. When her TV show, Lizzie Maguire, inevitably ran its course, she moved through the usual pop levels, beginning with the clean-cut fare that characterised her self-titled album - ‘Fly’, ‘Someone’s Watching Over Me’, and apparently concluding - on her most recent album, 2007’s Dignity, with what at the time probably seem liked controversial fare; the mildly-sexualised video for the surprisingly half-decent ‘With Love’, though, is positively puritanical by way of comparison to Cyrus’ recent output. Just last week, though, she re-emerged, with a new single - ‘Chasing the Sun’ - that unsurprisingly sounds about five years behind the current zeitgeist; remember that guy Jack Johnson? It sounds like a cover of one of his songs. Still, a deal with RCA Records for a new album means we should expect heavyweight promotion, and that might include international touring; she won’t be hitting the big venues - not to begin with, anyway - but it’d be daft not to expect a high-budget affair, with a full live band and complex stage show likely to come as standard.

Elly Jackson's return to the public eye earlier this year has been met with unanimous 'oohs' and 'aahs'. As La Roux, she redefined the rulebook on electro-pop, belting out stunning modern classics like “Bulletproof”, “Quicksand”, “I'm Not Your Toy”, and – of course – “In For The Kill”. The latter, remixed by Skream, helped bring dubstep into the public consciousness back in the heady halcyon yesteryear of 2009; truly, Jackson's dent on the musical world has been both vital and mammoth. In from the cold, her new record sees her tackle tropical synths and the sugary glee of '80s synthpop. Now sans original producer Ben Langsmaid, La Roux's approach has been self-described as “sexier”; whether that's categorically true is yet to be decided, but what is certain is the ability that Jackson has in live scenarios. There were rumours that she'd departed the industry due to anxiety of performing live, but these days, you'd never tell. Stomping around with oomph, purpose and a heady confidence, Jackson and her trademark rouge shock explode with technicolour pomp and hook-riddled tunes.
It's great to have her back, that's for sure, and now that she's most certainly back in our lives – a nice-size tour and festival stints are harbingers of her impending pop necessity – we can relax and dance the night away once more.