Can't Get You Out of My Head: Little Boots Sticks Around

Victoria Hesketh, the nymphish Brit behind electro-pop outfit Little Boots, wrote her university dissertation on originality in pop music, so she knows what she’s talking about when she admits, disheartened, that some of it can be “bland and manufactured.” But her debut EP, Arecibo, is much the opposite—especially its breakout single, “Stuck on Repeat.” Paste writer Henry Freedland recently tested the song’s infectious premise (and his sanity) by listening to it nonstop for 12 hours. Here are the highlights.

8:47 a.m. - First Repeat: I leave my apartment as the song builds from electro-dance jam into epic, trance-inducing anthem. Hesketh wrote the track with Kylie Minogue in mind, and it fittingly echoes the Italo-dance revivalism of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

8:54 a.m. - Second Repeat: As the song builds back up from nothing, its simplicity is striking; generously produced by Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, it’s still engaging in its ease. “Melodies just make songs for me,” Hesketh explained a few days ago on the phone. “You should be able to break it down, take off all the songs’ dressings.” I pass a street saxophonist, imagining him honking his way through “Stuck on Repeat.” Turns out, he’s playing "My Heart Will Go On.”

2:36p.m. - 46 Repeats: Sick of my solitude, I attempt to convince a local coffee shop to put “Stuck on Repeat” on repeat. The barista refuses. I explain that it’s not like I’m mimicking “Take the Money and Run,” and I tell him what Hesketh told me: “In the mass theater, there’s a lot more room for experimentation than people think.” He’s not impressed; the answer’s still no. I put my headphones back on.

5:41 p.m. - 70 Repeats: The song has approached an unnerving comfort, echoing Hesketh’s thoughts on pop’s balance of familiarity and dissonance. “People just regard it as a very straightforward thing, but I think it’s a very powerful format,” she said. “It’s the most challenging thing I could do—more than doing something totally weird.”

9:14 p.m. - 100 Repeats: Mind numbed, I load a YouTube video to shake up my last time through. Little Boots’ frequent video performances usually feature an LED beat-maker (her beloved Tenori-On) and a Stylophone synth, but for “stuck on repeat acoustic pyjamas version,” she channels her inner lo-fi lounge-crooner-in-monkey-print-fleece jammies. It’s somehow a fitting end to the day: Fully broken down, the song’s just as good as ever.