Why Little Boots Is Confusing Us

We’re a bit confused about Little Boots right now.

Most established artists on a record label have some sort of campaign / strategy behind them leading up to the release of an album. Yet with Little Boots it all seems strangely haphazard, as if she’s an unsigned act with no overall vision of where she’s going, throwing things out there as and when she feels like it. Shake, Headphones and Every Night I Say A Prayer were way better than average disco pop songs (if we were marking them out of 10 Shake would get 7, Headphones 8 and Every Night I Say A Prayer an 8.25) but all of them were given a low-key releases as if any attempt to get into the charts or playlisted on the radio would be seen as damaging.

A short while ago she tossed out a rough demo of another new song called Babyface – not the kind of action your typical difficult second album artist on a major label would normally do although she did write on her tumblr  “I will probably get made to take this down any minute but its Friday so sod it what’s the worst that can happen etc. I’m kind of bored of doing what I’m supposed to lolz.” Actually we’d rather she hadn’t put that one out, because our score sheet only gave it 4.5. Before that, earlier this year there was (a rather brilliant) one off show at Xoyo in London on her birthday which (of course) included a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday from the audience. And then there’s the mix tapes (which aren’t really tapes at all, but Soundcloud embeds / streams) of which she has now done several. You can find them here.

Yesterday Little Boots put another new mix tape up on line. It’s called the LITTLEBOOTSWELOVEMIX which we guess is called as such because tonight Little Boots is DJing in Ibiza at the We Love Space closing fiesta. We very much hope that she simply hasn’t recorded this, burnt it onto a CD and taken it with her to play whilst pretending to mix the tracks live, because technically that would be very naughty and cheating. So if you’re reading this Victoria (which of course you’re not but we can live in hope) as much as we love you, remember we cannot condone a cheat. (Although ultimately it’s about the tunes - not what knobs, faders and buttons the DJ is pressing). We’re streaming the LITTLEBOOTSWELOVEMIX below just on the off chance that someone reading this is in Ibiza tonight. If you are and you’re going to see Little Boots DJ, let us know if her set is identical.

So we’ve had plenty of new material from the Vickster, yet to the vast majority of the mainstream public Little Boots is a name that is rapidly fading from memory. Maybe this is where Little Boots wants to be – more of a credible electronic disco pop girl with a few DJ skills than a mainstream chart act. Back in 2008 we said “she’s fifty per cent cool, gaining rave reviews in a whole variety of dance and fashion magazines and fifty per cent geek, posting up videos of herself doing cover versions in her bedroom.” Maybe that’s still where and what she is; a mixture of cool and geek, not a chart girl or Sound of 2000-and-anything. Maybe this is why she’s just throwing music and mix tapes out willy-nilly. Maybe there is a strategy / maybe there isn’t. But irrespective of her or her label’s apparent lack of plan or control, let’s just be thankful that (demo of Babyface excepted) Little Boots is still giving us some tunes. 

Little Boots - LITTLEBOOTSWELOVEMIX