CD - Little Boots - Hands
Little Boots (Victoria Hesketh to her mum) prepared for art-pop stardom with a first class honours degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Leeds. Her dissertation on ‘the concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum’ sounds like a fascinating read, but one listen to her debut album confirms that the choice to move from theory to practice was a sound one.
Whilst drawing on 80s synth-pop to a strong degree (in particular on Symmetry a delightful duet with the Human League’s Phil Oakey, no less, and on the iTunes bonus track Love Kills, a cover of the Giorgio Moroder-produced Freddie Mercury song), Hands is less obviously derived from that era that many of the current crop of popsters alongside whom Little Boots is mentioned with some regularity. Catchy melodies and clever (but not too clever) lyrics take centre stage, with questions of sub-genre buried beneath the accessibility of the end result.
Numerous writers have compared this album to Kylie Minogue, although they have generally had the good grace to note that Little Boots is more obviously in charge of her own songwriting. For the most part this comparison is questionable, but there are a couple of definite points of reference. The very lovely Hearts Collide has an airy quality not miles away from In Your Eyes (except that it’s better), and Stuck On Repeat (a pre-album promo single in the UK) has a certain Can’t Get You Out Of My Head quality to it, both in terms of style and lyrical theme. A video with robot-esque dancers is surely in the offing at some point.
There are a number of other stand out tracks here, and refreshingly little filler. First single New In Town is a good taster for the album, combining quirky electro beats and synth lines with a punch melody, a straightforward tonight/alright/fine/time chorus and a bucket load of attitude. Ghost is all tin drumming and melodrama (“I might as well be a ghost… you walk right through me”), and Mathematics is laden with pulsating bleeps and cute puns (“everything must always equal two… your x is equal to my y”).
One of the real highlights, though, is the album’s (not very well) hidden track and title-track, a simple ballad that tells a sort of fractured fairy tale of a girl looking to mend a literally broken heart. It’s the kind of quirkiness that makes Kate Miller-Heidke endearing when she’s not being irritating. With any luck, Little Boots will continue to fall on the right side of this divide.
Little Boots – Hands is out now through Warner Music.
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DavidL
said ages ago