My Top Ten Tracks of 2008: #1 “Meddle,” Little Boots

Victoria Hesketh has an unabashed love of pop music. her YouTube channel is filled with covers of verse-chorus-verse groups as diverse as Hot Chip, Alphabeat, Haddaway, and will.i.am. As leader of the short-lived Dead Disco, she did a more-than-passable Deborah Harry fronting the Killers and made a few records that were the basis for some fine remixes, but it’s the four tracks on her Arecibo EP that grabbed my attention. I’m not normally one to fete someone with such a thin discography, but there’s something simultaneously celebratory and revelatory about the four tracks (“Meddle” and “Stuck On Repeat,” appear in their original and remixed forms) on her debut.

Throughout the too-short record, snatches of the purest Eurocheese from the deepest caves meet the no-wave sound of New York 1979 while the analog synths and cheap handclaps of Italodisco provide the backing and on top of it is one of the most perfectly pop voices I’ve heard – upbeat, maybe a little Kate Bush in parts, but with just enough oomph to sell the chorus. I really do get the feeling that she’s onto something, particularly if she continues to work with Joe Goddard from Hot Chip (them again – I have a whole theory about their parts being greater than the sum) and Greg Kurstin, who’s produced Lily Allen and Kylie (as well as Dead Disco.)

Last Christmas.

This year, I’m thankful for Little Boots.

“Meddle,” performed on Later…With Jools Holland

“Stuck On Repeat,” performed on Later…With Jools Holland

Little Boots and her brother cover “Boyfriend” by Alphabeat

Little Boots performs “What Is Love” by Haddaway

Little Boots covers “Don’t You Want Me” by Human League

Litlte Boots covers “Bullet In The Gun” by Planet Perfecto