The Great Misunderstanding Of Little Boots

OPINION: How Victoria Hesketh went from being everybody’s top tip to everybody’s punchbag
words: Jamie Milton

Nobody was ever going to expect the whole population of the world to stop what they were doing and go out and buy Little Boots’ debut album. Nor would you expect the vast majority of music fans to fall head over heels in love with ‘Hands’ the second they first heard it. But a general opinion has emerged that somewhere along the way, she’s bottled it, made a record completely dictated by an urge to sell records, a record that ignores her electronic roots. But in truth, the moment we became fixated with ‘Stuck On Repeat’ was the moment we became presumptuous as to how Little Boots’ first offering would sound.

With Joe Goddard of Hot Chip on production duties, people had every right to expect what they didn’t get. Instead of a dark, hypnotic debut album is something that Clash Magazine calls a little more “lightweight“. But in truth it might have been poor judgement on our part to expect a deep exploration into the weird and the wonderful, such as the Jools Holland performance of ‘Meddle’. But Victoria Hesketh certainly made no attempts to shy away from this sketched-out image. Already, in comes the conspiracy theories of big label influence, the grossly negative reviews, the general consensus of almost feeling cheated. But is ‘Hands’ more predictable than we’d imagine?

Any #1 tip on a BBC poll has to have elements of accessibility to them. The Bravery never made it there for getting naked during festivals. No, they made it because they were tame, listenable, future certainties on Radio 1 no matter how the debut album panned out. When it comes to Hesketh, she is a former auditionee on the X Factor, an attractive, sell-able artist, one with a spark of ambition in her eyes. Bottling it, in her regards, would be to start of a career making something avant-garde, completely unexpected. If she is the scientist we believe her to be, let her delve into newer territories when she has the record sales under her belt.

‘Hands’ might be a disappointing record. But it should merely be judged on a basis of whether it’s good in terms of being an accesible, light-weight pop record, not some groundbreaking masterpiece. Maybe we got excited by Little Boots for the wrong reasons. But give her time, she might one day emerge with something completely free, inspired, not weighted down by expectation or target markets. But for the time being let her seize the opportunity of being the most talked about human being in music.

mp3: Little Boots – New In Town [alt]

Further Reading: Gigwise’s review of ‘Hands’ -David Renshaw

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