Reasons Why Little Boots Will Never Be As Good As Goldfrapp

Bless Victoria Hesketh - she's a midget pop star with little vocal range and little lyrical inspiration. Actually, don't bless her - she's ripping off Black Cherry-era Goldfrapp and anyone who doesn't have a ten-second memory knows it.

It's a bit of a sad state of affairs really: things were looking promising when Little Boots started off just using a Tenori-On and a piano doing versions of pop songs (look them up on YouTube if you're interested) and then suddenly.... the hype machine descended.... Yes, that thing.

Suddenly she was grabbed and her hair was done up into loose blonde curls with dark metallic make-up and shiny sequin-decorated clothes and high-heels to match and oh dear! It happened! She morphed into the new version of Ally so quickly that it gave me a headache. Well, a migraine really.

But here's the thing: Vicky just doesn't have the charm or the warmth to be as alluring and listenable as Goldfrapp. Her voice goes from icy squeal to, er, icy squeal and her songs have only one theme which is quite boring after a while. Add to this the fact that all of her backing tracks have a coarse and edgy feel that grates horribly like scraping nails down a chalkboard and suddenly you wonder where the promise of the initial few months went.

Have your imitations if you want, I think I'll stick with the classic model.

Just to prove a point, I think I'll place them side by side in a little video-off for you to decide for yourselves:

Introducing: La Roux

This is La Roux, a synth-pop star in the making I think. In the latest edition of the Observer Music Magazine Brighton-based postrel Little Boots said that the only people carrying on the tradition of quirky and eccentric British pop were Hot Chip - well if all goes well then our friend La Roux will be able to join them.

Her real name is Elly Jackson, she's based in London and writes odd songs that don't have a clean-cut meaning with fuzzy vocals and brilliant synth hooks - far better than some of the other pretenders we have out there at the minute! An added bonus to all this? Unlike a lot of female artists coming from London lately (I'm looking at you Adele, Kate Nash, Lily Allen etc.) she's not singing in a horrible cockney accents. And she can bend her voice really well, willing it to stretch it to its limits, a bit like Camille singing that bit on "Money Note" when she takes the mick out of Mariah Carey and Celine Dion's faint weak voices then bursts into harmonic screaming, only more British! What a breath of fresh air...

Yep, it really is that good - at the minute she only has just over 2000 friends on MySpace which is nothing so maybe I've picked up on something good here. There's only a minute and a half worth of her single "Quicksand" but it's all you need to get hooked. Then again you can listen to "Reflections Are Protection" and a new mix of "In It For The Kill" in full which is a blessing! It's really a one for people who like singing and not talking, Hot Chip's odd take on electro and a good dollop of eccentricity!

Check out that page anyway, I'll leave the link right... here: http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk