Little Boots - Hands (Album)
For some inexplicable reason I find myself rooting for Britain’s Victoria ‘Little Boots’ Hesketh. After setting the blogosphere alight with the awesome track Stuck On Repeat around this time last year, Little Boots began receiving serious international attention. With each cover song uploaded to her YouTube channel (Hot Chip, MGMT and Wham! just to name a few) would come a host of superlatives from various critics. Until in typical British fashion, the hype culminated in her topping the BBC Sound of 2009 poll earlier this year, before having even released her debut single. How’s that for pressure?
Now, after taking almost six months off to write and record her debut album Hands, Little Boots is back. Managing to survive the almost crippling amounts of hype she has received in the UK since winning the poll, Hands debuted at number five in the UK last week and garnered more than a few rave reviews.
There is something about her DIY approach to music and the countless YouTube videos filmed in her bedroom-studio, pumping out incredible covers that got me in. However, before all of this was Stuck On Repeat. Catchier than the plague, it focuses on the torments of obsessive, unrequited love and irrepressible hooks and is aptly complete with one of the most irrepressible hooks you’re likely to hear. Unfortunately, in her bid for mainstream success and accessibility, the version of Stuck On Repeat found on Hands comes in at a paltry three minutes, a fraction of its former seven minute glory.
The highlights of Hands come almost invariably when producer Joe Goddard (aka vocalist/synth player for Hot Chip) is involved. Like Stuck On Repeat, the soon-to-be-single Meddle is a progressive, industrial pop number. It showcases Hesketh’s ability to enhance a song by adding that extra beat (or sleighbell!) track that few pop stars have the insight to add.
However, it’s not all good news for Hesketh. Hands contains its share of skippable tracks. Turbo-ballad Tune Into My Heart in particular, is cloying and grating enough to risk snapping the CD in half in frustration and derailing the whole project. The same can be said, to a lesser extent for Remedy, an overblown and overbearing dance number, courtesy of producer/co-writer RedOne (Lady Gaga, Akon)!
The debut single New In Town (written about Hesketh’s time spent in L.A. while recording Hands) mentions the difficulties of being somewhere foreign and unfamiliar. Her debut LP sees her negotiate these waters remarkably well. Riding the hype with impressive mastery, Hands is a strikingly self-assured album.
