Emerging amidst a flurry of female artists who have decided to put their acoustic guitars to one side and move on, whispers of Little Boots talents have been steadily growing since late last year when tracks such as ‘Meddle’ and ‘Stuck On Repeat’ had the indie-blog scene buzzing. Having come tantalizing close to the limelight with her previous almost-famous pop-trio Dead Disco, Little Boots, aka Victoria Hesketh debut album Hands proves that she has got what it takes to make it to the top, but the question is whether she can stay there.Inspired by nights spent in LA whilst recording, album opener ‘New in Town’ is brazenly commercial, as its synth-pop rhythm is delivered with a sassy nonchalance and quickly gathers momentum. What it lacks in grit and pulsating energy is made up in the following track, describing the trepidations of hidden relationship power struggles, ‘Earthquake’ is a surprisingly up-beat song that requires high volume levels to truly appreciate. With a rare sadness behind the eerie vocal sighs, early attention is grabbed by the croaking opening synth breaks of ‘Stuck On Repeat.’ Apparently originally composed with Kylie Minogue in mind “You’ve got me stuck on repeat, I can only move to the beat” seems very Kylie-esque, as does the lightweight sultriness of ‘Hearts Collide’. Despite common comparisons to a Eurovision entry, mid-album dance pop concoction ‘Remedy’ is an immaculately constructed floor filler, as the smooth, echoing vocals have a sort of guilty appeal. On the slightly more sophisticated side ‘Meddle’ has a heavier, more industrial clunk to its synth based rhythm.‘Meddle’ was in fact one of the first tracks I heard from Little Boots towards the end of last year, and whilst original and certainly catchy, like much of this album I find it grows quickly tiresome. Even the largely raved about ‘Stuck On Repeat’ becomes somewhat inevitably repetitive. Whilst ‘Mathematics’ has a sort of 90s jazz piano bar behind its more polished electronic bleeps, it is ultimately an inherently irritating song: it is almost impossible to appreciate any merits of the melody with cringingly cheesy lyrics such as “So will you take just a little of my mind and subtract it from my soul/Add a fraction of your half and you’ll see it makes me whole.” Only in the minimalist piano-led hidden track at the end of ‘Brakes’ do we really get a sense of Hesketh, as opposed to Little Boots, as her raw Lancashire tinged vocals are more mesmerizing than the constant overlays of synthesizers.Hesketh has some serious disco boots to fill, and whilst Hands is certainly a beautifully crafted disco-pop album, with many fast-pace synth tracks living up to the hype, songs such as ‘Click’ and ‘Tune into my Heart’ fall flat. And whilst I would definitely recommend certain tracks from this album, as a whole there is something lacking which can be found in artists such as Goldfrapp, La Roux and Santigold.