Little Boots Hands Review
New in Town Starlet Gets Stuck on Repeat on this Dancefloor Remedy
Aug 26, 2009
Victoria Hesketh, better known as Little Boots, has been the electro glam name to drop in the UK since the beginning of the year. Her viral videos on You Tube of original songs and glam covers struck a cord with fans searching for the next fresh sound.
Then at the end of 2008, The BBC Sound of 2009 survey, which is compiled each year by a team of over 130 British music critics, editors and broadcasters, named Little Boots as the number one artist to watch in 2009, besting contemporaries Lady Gaga and La Roux.
After releasing a couple of EPs containing some of the most unabashedly sleek electro-dance pop tracks to emerge from the UK in years, Little Boots had built a fan base and buzz many established artists dream of before even revealing her debut disc.
It was therefore with great anticipation that Little Boots release her first full-length player, Hands.
Meddle Remedy
With all the shine and glitter of a disco ball dipped in mercury, Little Boots has chalked Hands full of streamline floor-ready dance tracks that don’t disappoint, with a few minor cracks in the mirror.
Top-heavy, Hands starts off with five tracks that showcase the dynamic range of this new starlet. “New in Town”, “Earthquake”, “Stuck on Repeat”, the pulsating second single “Remedy”, “Meddle” and to a lesser degree “Click” follow a similar electronica-meets-pop vibe that merge equal parts innovation and 80’s-influenced familiarity.
Filled with melody and crystalline dance tracks, Hands shines as one of the best electro-dance albums this year and luckily delivers on the hype cast over Little Boots since she first appeared online singing old Human League in her bedroom.
Little Boots therefore comes full-circle on “Symmetry”, the only duet on the disc featuring Philip Oakey and his undisputed croak - he hasn’t aged a day since “Don’t You Want Me”.
Stuck on Repeat
Collecting her ‘older’ tracks “Meddle” “Stuck on Repeat” and “Mathematics” released on her EPs, and splicing them between new compositions, Hands contains extremely catchy, danceable tracks but sandwiches them between unfortunate filler towards the end of the album.
Hands could have been much tighter had Little Boots included her stellar cover of Freddie Mercury’s “Love Kills” instead of the supernatural love bust “Ghost”.
And she could have saved “Tune Into My Heart” and “Hearts Collide” for mid-release EP while including indie-pop tune “Not Now” and “Ring My Bell”-inspired “Magical” from her unexplained US-only Illuminations EP.
While Hands is as strong an album as those of her contemporaries, Lady Gaga and La Roux, when Little Boots gives into her inspired temptations, she delivers bigger than either. Any doubters need only click on “Stuck on Repeat” - the title says it all.
Little Boots’ Hands is available now in most territories. A US release is slated for 2010, in the meantime America gets the Illuminations EP.
 |
