Little Boots - Hands

Released: March 2, 2010

Purchased: October 2010 from Amazon.com

First Thoughts: I would have sworn this was from 2009. It has the sound of 2009 all over it. Luckily, 2009-2010 was one of my absolute favorite times in British music. (La Roux! Ellie Goulding! The return of Sophie Ellis-Bextor!) I always associate this album with my first year of college, especially Remedy, which I distinctly remember having stuck in my head one day in my Brit Lit class.

Playthrough:

New in Town - One of the most poppy songs on the album. I totally understand why it made its way onto a couple of soundtracks: it sounds like that's what it was meant for. Vicky's vocals are not very good at times, to the point that it makes it a little hard to listen to, but she compensates for it with great production.

Earthquake - My favorite at the time, and a worthy single choice even though it was destined to flop. It's the epitome of wonky pop, which is really what Vicky does best. Plus, it indirectly gave us this iconic Twitter exchange.

Stuck on Repeat - This is a surprisingly generic club track, but it has a great hook.

Click - This is where we really get a taste of how most of the album sounds. It's poppy, slightly atmospheric, and a little gritty.

Remedy - Yes slay me quen. Vicky's poppiest song to date. She wrote and produced it with RedOne, at the time newly famous from producing Just Dance and Poker Face. It does have a bit of the "RedOne on autopilot" thing, but it sounds like older, A*Teens-era RedOne, before he stopped trying and just started writing/producing Poker Face over and over. Her vocals are also pretty good on this one - not as good as on Nocturnes, but better than on the first four tracks. Her voice takes on a lovely sweet quality that works really well with the song. And yeah, lyrically it is Just Dance 2.0, but it manages to sound a little deeper, or at least like they tried harder.

Meddle - My absolute least favorite on the album. It's mostly just noise - it sounds like Vicky was trying to be ~artistic~ at the expense of pleasant production and melody. Which is a shame, because the hook is great.

Ghost - I think she was going for something ethereal and a little creepy, but it ended up cutesy. It's really cute, actually, which is a little strange given the lyrics about a distant partner. It's enjoyable when I'm in the mood for it, but I wasn't tonight, so I had to skip it.

Mathematics - A very typical Little Boots song, a pop melody overlaid with a lot of 2010 wonky-pop trickery. Not her best effort, and pretty fillery, but interesting if nothing else. (Interesting filler, now there's a concept.)

Symmetry - I gather this isn't popular among her fans, but I have no idea why. It's a joy! It features Phil Oakey from The Human League (one of Vicky's major influences) as her duet partner, which is great, though since his voice is so much more powerful and distinctive than Vicky's (and better controlled), she ends up seeming like the featured artist on her own song.

Tune Into My Heart - You could call this filler too, but I've always loved it. It's another more bubblegummy moment on the album. Has Vicky's stamp all over it: unusual analogy for a loving but troubled relationship. No wonder I love it, when I put it like that. It actually would have been a very good choice for a single, probably better than Earthquake. It's not at all representative of the album, but it would have appealed to a wider audience.

Hearts Collide - I barely remember how this went aside from "baaaby, when our hearts collide," but it's nice. I didn't feel the need to skip it like Meddle, Ghost, and Mathematics.

No Brakes - This is really pretty. Very similar to what she'd do on Nocturnes: a midtempo that somehow sounds like a ballad. The big downfall, again, is her voice. A stronger vocalist could carry the chorus much better and make the song even more appealing.

Hands - I think this is the first time I've ever listened to this all the way through, largely because it's a hidden track and I didn't feel like fast-forwarding through the silence after No Brakes, but partly because it's pretty shit. It's obviously Vicky's attempt at aping Kate Bush, from the vocal style to the piano accompaniment, and even evident in the songwriting. But vocal tricks that are merely annoying from Kate are downright screechy with Vicky, and the lyrics hold promise but sound totally half-assed.

Final verdict: As you can probably tell, the absolute biggest problem with this album is Vicky's voice. She sounds fine (though still not great) on Nocturnes, but I had honestly forgotten how bad she sounded here. But honestly, that's a testament to how good the songs are, at least for the most part. It's a shame that Elektra was so wrapped up in presenting her as the British Lady Gaga - although it gave us some great stuff like Remedy, I think ultimately it cramped her creativity and led to the songs not being as well developed as they could have been. Then again, it seems to be what pulled her away from the total left-field thing heard on Meddle, so we should probably be thankful for it. As long as you can do with the shaky vocals, this is a tremendously solid album that's unjustly overlooked and even maligned. 8.5/10.

Highlight: I'm gonna have to go with Remedy. It's an obvious choice, and not the most truly Little Boots, but it is definitely the best thing here.