Album Review: Little Boots - Nocturnes
- Written by Rob Crozier
Little Boots returns with her second album Nocturnes and fresh from her successful collaboration with DJ Shadow. This new album is unapologetic intelligent dance pop. Intelligent in its subtlety and use of classic bass lines and simplistic in its obvious love of disco and house music and for that reason it is a mini-triumph.
Little Boots' lazy hazy vocals move sinuously through the album as she attempts to carve out space alongside deep funky house bass lines. Her sound reminds us of an Ibiza Chillout session and you get the feeling that she's chasing the sun in some late summer Ibiza beach party. She uses her love of house and disco to create irresistible hooks that draw in the listener and invite them along.
We can foresee the album being a beach favourite. This is best illustrated on the track 'Beat Beat'. Its use of laid back disco themed pop bass lines allows Little Boots to “Keep on Dancing” The track is infectious, enjoyable and outlines her love of old school dance tunes.
Lead track (and latest single) 'Motorway' is, however, the real triumph as it paints a picture of British motorways. Not the most obvious of subject material and yet Little Boots (real name Victoria Hesketh) skilfully points up the wonder of using the motorway to escape and being able to “find our perfect place”. Her smooth dreamy vocals are surrounded by a throwback to the retro house bass lines of Detroit's House scene. This track was made available earlier this year as a free download and we expect it to be a popular summer driving track.
The lazy house theme continues with the second track, 'Confusion' with a slower vocal line about betrayal. Yet even this more serious topic is encased in infectious dance hooks. However 'Broken Record' follows and unfortunately dents the flow of an otherwise good album. Clearly not the strongest track on the album the repetitive vocals do actually start to feel a bit like a broken record. The use of sampled and distorted vocals is interesting, annoying and hypnotic all at once.
This highlights the limitation of the album and the fact that it offers nothing new in pushing the dance pop boundaries. It is certain to provide a safe enjoyable soundtrack to one summer as its major strength comes from the feeling it induces that you've already heard it before at exactly the sort of outdoor party it will go down best at.
It recovers well though as other tracks such as 'Shake' take you back to the deep house days of the late 1990s and the album starts to feel more focused once more, as a 'serious' house album. 'Every Night I Say A Prayer' and 'Crescendo' deliver sweet pop pleasure and illustrate the great balance the album has as the right tempo keeps the album bouncing along with harmless enjoyable melodies.
The final three tracks of the album move you into the final hours of a wonderful night out. 'Strangers' has the feel of ageing clubbers who now miss their nightclubbing days and are unable to connect anymore. The final track 'Satellite' completes our return from the club as we fall back down to earth as dawn appears. The album acts as an enjoyable night out perfectly packaged and is sure to be a success.
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