When I opened up a profile on last.fm, electro-pop music was ruling everyone’s charts. I have become obsessed with the genre in a matter of months. Soon enough, it became clear to me that it is tough to be innovative in commercial electro-pop, so many don’t even try to make something new and interesting, rather utilizing the old formula.
One of the first musicians to do so was Little Boots. Victoria Christina Hesketh was in a band Dead Disco that fell apart after only four singles. After that, the singer started her solo project, and her career catapulted with the debut titled Hands. The reason why I am writing about this record is because Little Boots was the one who discovered the world of electro pop to me back in 2010. After a while, I have realized that she was copy-paste machine.
Hands remind me of Aphrodite, an album by Kylie Minogue that came out around the same time. It is clear that stellar producers worked on both of these albums, so everything is perfectly designed. Hands has a pimped atmosphere, which helped the album gain commercial success. Still, the whole material sounded kind of forgettable (although I did not forget about it, obviously).
Explosive backgrounds do not distance themselves from ideal pop melodies, and Little Boots struggles to rise above mediocrity. Most of the songs are oriented towards finding soft solutions, almost infantile. The absolute must for a pop album is to have at least one radiophonic hit single, and Earthquake was the one from Little Boot’s debut. It may be the best track on the album, as the rest belongs to the average materials of pop music. Another standout is Remedy, with a great Pendulum intro and the classic, repetitive chorus.
The rest of the songs are dull, and they all resemble Kylie Minogue. Tune Into My Heart proves my point, even though it was my guilty pleasure at the time. The opening track New In Town is a stereotype that I could never play again.
Next week, I am going to write about La Roux or The Ting Tings as their albums had a little bit more nerve, charisma and uniqueness. I don’t know If Little Boots is going to make a big return sometime in the future, but even If she doesn’t, Hands will be remembered among hipsters. For reasons unknown.
