Pages

Friday 9 January 2009

Boots

My general approach to new music is, leave it for 15 years and then come back to it. As such, I was surprised at the end of last year to discover Little Boots lurking unassumingly in a corner of YouTube. For me, Little Boots is the first in what promises to be a long line of exciting products of the mp3 generation. As the lamented Tony Wilson explained, the music scene is a helix curve - as one side is going down, another side is coming up. However, as Wilson had probably forseen, the advent of the computer will completely revolutionise this. No longer are people left listening to their dad's old records, or what the radio is playing for their inspiration. With a computer and an internet connection, anyone can have virtually any piece of music or song that they want within seconds. If they have a credit card, they can have it legally, too.

The products of this new eclecticism are likely to be a lot of very young, sickeningly talented people playing music that will leave you thinking - well, where the hell has that come from, after a decade of sub-Sham '69, pro-Alexa Chung, tight-trousered, floppy-haired, Indie terrace chant bollocks? Little Boots - who like many of her contemporaries used the internet to her best advantage - sounds like Kylie Minogue and Giorgio Moroder had a baby.

The problem with this baby is, it took after its mother in terms of looks. And I'd like to complain about this state of affairs. Little Boots is a very pretty woman, which will serve to completely undermine any man's reasoned attempts to be a fan of her music on its own merits. I'm not suggesting it would be better if she were an ugger, but it might help - in the early stages - if she were to wear a paper bag on her head.

Because she is very good. Very good indeed. Like a folk singer from SPACE, she appeared on Later...with Jools Holland last December, accompanying herself on concert grand, Tenori-on and Stylophone. A one-man band from the 25th Century. Boots today won the BBC Sound of 2009 award, thus making her mainstream and me, temporarily, with it. I hope Boots will continue to live up to her huge promise, and prove me a capable cultural commentator, too. I think she will. I like the feeling of being with it.

I think this means I have to get me a flick knife and some gang colours.

1 comment:

colin said...

You know what, though? The worst thing about almost any Kylie Minogue record is Kylie Minogue, so I'm not at all sure she's not adopted.

Attention

You have reached the bottom of the internet