Katy B - On A Mission (4 April 2011) - hype, anticipation &c

this album is great imo+btw+fuiud

There's a Britishness about this album which I am completely incapable of grappling with, even though it sounds like it was programmed by robots for me to love it

shout outs on an album = almost always a waste of plastic/filespace

im thinking that shes actually just not that good at crafting album cuts, shes better just doing straight up club hits like lights on, as i, and so on. obv the hit to miss ratio of songs like that means that you cant always come up with the goods doing that kind of thing all the time, but those are still her best moments - the rest just doesnt really match up. so maybe she *is* better off being a producers puppet, or at least co-pupeteering herself. i do need to hear the album more though.

ehh I don't really get to go to funky nights or whatever much but I'm not sure the difference between 'club track' and 'album track' on this is as big or clear as you're suggesting

Titchy you are insanely wrong about virtually everything here. Given most of the album was produced by Geeneus and Zinc, who know their way around a club track, the distinction you're drawing is virtually non-existent. Almost everything here is a club track, or at least a club-friendly track.

I find the shout outs kind of sweet actually, it's like having the credits roll on what's otherwise a slightly underwhelming closer (relative to the rest of the album which is A+++).

I think they confirm the album's modest, reverential touch which draws her to me more and stops her becoming another Lily Allen or whoever.

matt, i dont care who produced it. i think what i am saying is simply that there are about 3 obvious club hits on this, the rest isnt quite as strong, not cos of the producers, but cos katy didnt come up with songs as strong as say, lights on (which render them album tracks, though not as strong as 'album material' cos shes aiming for club hit status each time out). which might seem unfair (do like that shes trying to insert more of her personality into this than most garage or funky vocalists have done/would do) but then this as you said, this is a club album. but maybe i wasnt paying enough attention. i should listen a few more times to make sure ive not missed anything.

which draws her to me more

careful, dog.

love the line "now i love a bad boy mentality/ but i don't want to be visiting no jail"

and the next one - "just know when there's someone out there mocking me / be my gangster when it's time to get real" <3

GUYS THIS AMEN BREAK ON "WITCHES BREW" IS FUCKING SLAAAAYYYING ME

Yeah, I like how it's all slow motion.

<3 Broken Record

yeah i've fully come round to "broken record". remixes from todd the god and jacques greene also pretty u&k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34uavBaXoW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3qYPokxKnY

there really isn't a single song on the album that i don't love to some extent - even the ones i think are slightly weaker still make me very fond of them somehow

you didn't like 'broken record' at first? that kind of makes me a little sad...

i did like it, i just didn't think it was AMAZING like "katy on a mission" and "lights on". that is rectified and i now think it's very AMAZING.

I'm not big on "Broken Record" as a whole but i LOVE the vocal breakdown bit.

i guess i can see it; it does remind me of radiohead a little bit

compare:

i would toss and turn at night with your voice in my head

vs.

miss could you stop the noise i'm tryna get some rest

it's a stretch for sure, but not that much of one

Zinc remix is nice too xps

yeah i had to come around on 'broken record' - looooove the ascending/descending vocal in the verses

compositionally, it's great! (plz do not read this as = soundz like Radiohead) I love the way the ending mantra repeated over and over again--a common trope in pop music--ties into the 'broken record' conceit, I love the R&B harmonizing towards the end (I assume this is what NumberNone is referring to as the 'vocal breakdown'), the little countermelodies underneath that long note in the chorus...I think the songwriting chops add a whole new dimension to Katy's style and keeps things from turning into "guess the beat" (though I like that game)

i love this woman -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/24/soundtrack-of-my-life-katy-b
altho she should really mention mamas gun over baduizm (not that baduizm is bad, its not)

be interesting to see what happens when she goes a bit R&B as she prob will (even if its just trying her hand at it, rather than coverting full on)

Is this going to get a US release any time soon?

'I used to like a lot of R'n'B, but when I analysed most of those songs, and looked at the chord progression or whatever, there wasn't much there'

bet lex would love this if anyone else said it

Seeing her tonight... sooo excited...

I don't think there's much in house music when you "look at the chord progression" either.

"Is this going to get a US release any time soon?"

its released worldwide on google.

What's that stuttering sample on 'Go Away' from? The King's Speech maybe?

i think i worked out it was the prodigy ("charly" iirc)

That kind of makes sense if it's Zinc I guess. I love that song.

yeah it's absolutely gorgeous

love when she gets all r&b diva towards the end

yeah it's charly, or def something off the first prodigy album - but i don't know if that in itself is a sample?

I remember I had loads of tapes of Red Alert from NYC and Solid Steel when I first moved to London and I remember that sample being dropped into the mix, I never found out where it was from.

standing at the bar
with my friend oliviaaa

so otm

it's the next single, i hope olivia gets a cameo in the video

Good, it's my favourite track on there I think. Although, I think I've exhausted this album for a bit now.

It's still holding up for me - helps that the songwriting is so strong.

fyi she kills it live - just so much natural casual charm on stage, nothing overdone

olivia revealed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG4T7y7Yxk0&hd=1

great video

YES @ shot of ddr/dancing stage machine

love it

I'm not sure anyone has pointed out the greatness of the line "now I love a bad boy mentality/ but I don't want to be visiting no jail"

You already did man. It is great though.

ok ha

Yeah, like the video. Love the way it just takes place in a pool bar, not at China Whites or whatever.

so finally getting around to actually listening to this, and it's...great. Like, really great.

I haven't heard all of it yet, but it sounds like it's better than Eye Contact, which I didn't expect, like, at all.