La Roux releases a cover of Gang of Four‘s “Damaged Goods” and along with it a video that is part elegy, part utter mayhem.
La Roux’s “Damaged Goods” cover numbered among Andy’s last and favorite collaborations. It was recorded by La Roux—multi-award-winning artist Elly Jackson—at Andy’s request and with his input, including a session at his personal studio, for The Problem of Leisure, the album he was working on at the time of his sudden death in February 2020. The album, released in June 2021, and featuring artwork by Damien Hirst, attracted rave reviews.
To mark the release, La Roux shot a striking video (in every sense of that phrase!) with photographer and filmmaker Leo Cackett. In a play on the track title and Gang of Four’s famous (ab)use of a microwave in live performances of another song, “He’d Send in the Army,” La Roux, wearing Andy’s favorite coat and using a baseball bat that was last used by Gang of Four on stage, dances, feints, lunges and attacks multiple microwaves. The video also features a skeletal microwave, the battered remains of the machine that survived one of the band’s last tours.
