Little Boots Struts Her Stuff On Sophomore Album

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 7, 2013 6:20PM

Photo by Mari Sarai

It's been almost four years since Little Boots released her debut LP and, in her genre of electronic pop, that might as well be four decades. Her follow-up, Nocturnes, is out today and in some ways it's a little surprising. On her last album, Hands, Little Boots embraced the quirkier aspects of pop, but on Nocturnes she plays it relatively straight and constructs throbbing mini-Euro dance anthems. The mood here isn't of abandon on the club floor though, instead there's a cool detachment carrying through the material that feels more Less Than Zero than Human Traffic, know what we mean?

The first half of the album keeps things moving smoothly along without breaking a sweat, until we run into "Beat Beat" and the heat turns up. In fact this could easily pass as a Kylie Minogue single. The material only grows better from that point onward. The tempo picks up and Boots' personality asserts itself more forcefully. The album's centerpiece, in our opinion, is the triumphant "Crescendo." Everything leading up to it is itself slowly building up, and everything after seems like the only thing it could possibly do in the universe is unspool into the album's closing trio of songs. What began as a traditional pop album now reveals itself to be anything but, and the dance floor we were afraid would remain empty is now slippery with sweat.

The last time we saw Little Boots play it was in the relatively cramped confines of The Empty Bottle, which perfectly suited her miniature DIY stage show that gelled well with Hands' material. Tomorrow she comes back to town to play the much larger Lincoln Hall, and this makes total sense since we can see the more refined songs on Nocturnes playing well in a bigger room with a more intricate stage set.

Check out two tracks from the new album below and get a solid taste of Little Boots.

Little Boots plays May 8 at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N Lincoln, 9 p.m., $15, 18+