With a title inspired in part by the 1988 comedy-drama of the same name,
Little Boots' third full-length album, 2015's
Working Girl, showcases her trademark atmospheric '70s disco and '80s house-infused pop with ever increasing aplomb. A concept album,
Working Girl revolves around Victoria Hesketh's (aka
Little Boots') own journey from major-label fame with Atlantic Records in 2009 to independent success after founding On Repeat Records in 2013. The album follows Hesketh's equally conceptually minded 2014 EP
Business Pleasure (all four tracks are included here) and finds her expanding upon that album's dual themes of creative transformation and professional empowerment. Working with a bevy of arty dancefloor-familiar producers including
Simian Mobile Disco's Jas Shaw,
Com Truise, and Chris Carmouche (
Janelle Monáe,
Major Lazer), Hesketh has constructed album of arch, laser-like sophistication, punctuated by moments of euphoric passion. Cuts like the title track, "Taste It," and "Real Girl" are languid, exotic anthems that balance Hesketh's thoughtful D.I.Y. feminist point of view with subtle cheekiness and a winking sense of camp. Whether she's singing about taking control of her creative process, her career, or even her sexuality, Hesketh imbues
Working Girl with a confident swagger. It's as if she's reimagined her herself as an '80s power suit-wearing heroine in a film about her life; a cinematic ice queen CEO commanding the boardroom in stilettos. As she defiantly coos on "Business Pleasure, "I'm not your girl in the machine/I won't give up on my daydream." Which isn't to say there aren't moments of red-hot passion on
Working Girl. On the contrary, cuts like "Get Things Done" and the sparkling club anthem "Desire," are whip-crack funky and utterly infectious, bringing to mind Vogue-era
Madonna. Ultimately,
Working Girl plays like
Little Boots' own biopic, a cinematic feminist synth-pop manifesto set to a pulsing
Giorgio Moroder-esque soundtrack. ~ Matt Collar