Little Boots is officially a 'Working Girl'.
Not just neat description of this ever-busy pop talent, 'Working Girl' is the name of Victoria Hesketh's new album.
Out on July 10th, it's a delicious pop concoction with Little Boots adding a feisty edge to her slinky electro beats.
Ahead of this, Clash placed Little Boots in the hotseat for our weekly singles column – here are her thoughts…
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Bleachers – 'I Wanna Get Better'
I already want to like this because I know this is Lena Dunham’s boyfriend’s band but I will try to be unbiased… Ok but listening now and this could totally be soundtracking some kind of montage in ‘Girls’ cutting between scenes of Adam and Hannah being crazy and lonely and will they or won't they get back together?! to the chorus of ‘I Wanna Get Better!’. Its very lyrically dense as a song but a super strong chorus that manages not to feel overthought and they kind of remind me of about 10 different American bands I’ve loved as a teenager all at once so there’s something really comforting in the sound. ‘How did I know I was lonely till I saw your face’ is the kind of line all girls want to be sang about them. It's a thumbs up from me, I think.
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Petite Meller – 'Baby Love'
First off calling a song ‘Baby Love’ is a very bold move you really need to pull off. OK this video has REAL LIVE GIRAFFES in it. INDOORS! It must have cost about a million pounds. She is either on a major label with a very big budget or is very rich and actually just lives in this big house in Africa and has pet giraffes, hoping its the latter and she genuinely is this kooky.
It's kind of all over the shop which I quite like, there’s definitely a big pop song in here and it feels ambitious, some great jangly pianos and big choir moments she almost gets lost in, and an excellent saxophone solo. I’m not sure if I totally buy into her Parisian eccentric doll chic just yet but I’m interested to see where she what she will do next (where on Earth do you go after dancing with giraffes?!)
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Ill Blu ft. James Morrison – 'Lonely People'
Kind of an interesting move for James Morrison to feature on a dance track… doesn’t he usually do boring guitar mum music? "We’re just lonely people looking for someone to love…" I feel like I’ve heard that line a hundred times. Hmm I’m sorry but this just kind of stinks of something an A&R guy has cooked up to tick several boxes at once.
The video won’t load but looks like some kind of spin on a Northern Soul Mod party… yawn… I feel like its going to be playing in a lot of Pure Gyms across the country. Sorry this one isn’t doing it for me, that trumpet behind the chorus is just unnecessary.
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Lucy Rose – 'Like An Arrow'
Girl with a nice voice and a guitar, so far so good if you like that kind of thing. It's very inoffensive, if it was a tiny bit more twee and cutesy it could totally be on one of those phone ads about people connecting or something but I think it manages to just about stay on the right side of the line.
I think if you like nice dreamy girlie guitar dream pop you’ll probably love it, it's got a nice hook and hard to actively dislike but, for me, it's all just a little bit too polite. Apparently she jumps off a waterfall in the video, #edgy.
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Prides – 'Messiah'
This sounds like someone is rubbing their hands together thinking they’ve found the next Bastille. For some reason something about it also makes me think of an electro Maximo Park but maybe that’s too kind. The video makes me like them a bit more, a couple of priests going on some kind of retro road trip is quite a fun idea, and by the end the relentless chant of "say you’ll be my messiah" has wormed itself into you’re brain enough to believe it's perfect Radio 1 playlist fodder.
I can’t really tell if its harmless likeable indie pop or everything that’s wrong with music right now.
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Little Boots will release new album 'Working Girl' on July 10th.
