1st Amazing Pop Album of the Year ALERT!!!!

No, it's not La Roux. Nor is it Luigi Masi (google him... or, er, don't... he's terrible, but we'll save that for another day). It's LITTLE BOOTIES. Yes. Little Boots.

We've said some confused and borderline mean things about poor Miss Victoria Bootles in the past and actually deleted one overlong and bloated post when we realised we'd been spewing mean, contrived bollocks. So now we've come running back into Ms. Petites Bottes' arms to say WE'RE SORRY. WE LOVE YOU.

Basically, Hands, her official debut album (there have been a million 'tastemaking' EPs) is available to listen on her myspace and we fully encourage a swizz, followed, preferably by you actually BUYING IT AND NOT STEALING IT FOR FREE YOU CRIMINAL CUNTS. It is also amazing. There have been various things in question about La Boots over her inimitable climb to dizzy hype heights. "She's not an electric live performer", "Her voice is odd", "She's sold out", "Her video is boring"... and whilst all of those things hold some vague semblance of validity, they also don't.

The thing about Victoria Hesketh is that when she started out she seemed, completely by accident, to actually be very cool. All that stuff about crystals and magic and lights and unicorns and triangles and discoballs. And by the time the Massive Hype Machine du Angleterre and her record label were done with her, they'd basically squeezed a lot of this out of her by forcing her to spend almost every second of her waking hours writing with TOP PRODUCERS and ATTENDING EVENTS. So now, it's almost impossible to connect the wide-eyed, overhyped blonde lass with a strangely cold video to the odd little pop minx from teh internet all those months ago.

Nevertheless, all this guff aside, the music is fantastic. This is one instance when we feel we should throw everything we know about Victoria as a person and as a popstar out the window (strip away the hipster layers, so to speak) and JUST concentrate on the songs. And when you do, the album is ruddy marvelous. Melodies are ten to the dozen. Harmonies and synth hooks loom out at you from EVERYWHERE. There is not a single weak song on the entire opus. Every single track is a brilliant, shimmering pop anthem. Obviously some are better than others. But still. No weak tracks. Even the bonus material ("Love Kills" and "Magical") are huge synth stompers.

Which brings us back to how we feel about Little Boots herself. Yes, she's written an album full of hugely top-notch pop songs. But are we in love with HER, or the songs?! Unfortunately, we think it may be more the songs. We don't really see Little Boots as the Kylie Minogue of her generation, as some would have had us believe. We actually see her more as the Cathy Dennis. A ridiculously and prolifically brilliant pop writer, whose epic songs are actually better off in others hands.

You may not agree with us on that point. But we hope you'll agree that whether you've fallen for Boots or not. The songs are truly magical.

Recommendations
"Love Kills" - Little Boots
"Magical" - Little Boots
"New In Town" - Little Boots