Weekly > Reviews
Little Boots - Hands
I’m sorry Victoria I really am, I was desperate to like this album (and no not just because I fancy her – although she is sweet), but she seems like she could really offer a breath of fresh air to our pop world and by that I mean pop in the purest sense of the word.
I’d love to see her battling it out with Girls Aloud and Sugababes for the seat on the throne at the top table of female pop in this country, she’d offer a tantaslising difference that should see her win outright, yeah sure she has the glam to match them, but she has the all round talent to surpass them.
I saw enough of that in her when I caught her live recently, she has a knack for a pop hook and a good chorus, she can play and on the youtube cover videos she offers a lo-fi bedroom ethic that you’d expect from a more underground act. That’s one thing she isn’t though and with the hype that has surrounded her this year, it means expectations have been ramped up something cronic.
While it’s not fair to judge her against hype (that isn’t her fault after all) it does mean that you come to listening to Hands with a definite expectation from her, helped along by the recent single New In Town, a fantastic track that gets right under your skin from the word go.
Unfortunately though little else on the album would have you reaching for the repeat button.In fact it’s when she moves away from the more obvious pop tracks like Ghosts, Meddle, the playful Mathematics, the moody Hearts Collide and the dancier Remedy that you really see the potential she has.
- Little Boots
- Hands (2009)
- Category: Album
- Label: 679 Recordings / Atlantic
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 16 Jun 2009
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesFar too many times though the tracks follow too much of a similar pattern and blueprint and that just leaves the lyrics exposed, some of which really aren’t great. If you want to see what I mean then listen to Stuck On Repeat, No Brakes, Click (although the tune isn’t bad), they come over a bit 5th form poetry for me.
The worst track though has to be Symmetry. While it’s obvious she has a love of 80’s music and soundwise uses it as an inspiration, on this track she crosses too far over the line and with Phil Oakey joining her on vocals it becomes a horrible mess of a track with Oakey doing her no favour with his dated vocals.
So a disappointment overall, glimpses of magic yes, but i’d love to hear a mix of tracks with a more stripped back feel like you get on her bedroom videos, a pop sheen is fine, but not if it’s burying the talent that is clearly there.
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