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

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

This is a really nice album!

Really nice as in... cheese pop with a load of dance signifiers that manages to not quite sound like shit? Cos that’s something I can get on board with!

Not feeling "Broken Record".

Me either worst of the lot yet by far.

Lights On might be my fave so far and I wasn't that keen on it at first. It seems to have the most legs out of all the singles. On A Mission isn't really working for me anymore and Louder was a bit, well not there...

Really nice as in... cheese pop with a load of dance signifiers that manages to not quite sound like shit? Cos that’s something I can get on board with!

― jimitheexploder, Thursday, 3 March 2011 23:34 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Yes, exactly.

Has this leaked?

i am feeling "broken record"

I don't like it and I suddenly am expecting this album to disappoint me. (But if I expect it to disappoint me, can I still be disappointed?)

"Broken Record" is very much an album track rather than single. I'm still expecting this album to be great.

Lots of remixes up of Broken Record on Rinse's youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbduBTmcf0

Jacques Greene is my pick of the bunch so far and it isn't to hot, Todd Edwards is ok, Geeneus' funky remix doesn't really sound like funky... all a bit weak really. hmm...

Love Broken Record. The remixes don't sound too hot, though.

Quite like the JG. It's opened up the original for me a bit. Haven't heard the Geeneus mix yet but curious where he goes with it.

broken records not bad. sounds like something from the late 90s. im imagining the album will be like recent skream/magnetic man, just with songs.

Yes, although it is less horrible than those two albums.

It is very much in the spirit of girl-next-door 90s pop-dance, but I like that.

brit school house

It's the second sign that there's a sort of 'nuum hit factory being built. like a dubstep Stock Aitken Waterman or something.

What was the first?

"lights on" is classic

xpost oh sorry, was gonna say Magnetic Man. There's no reason why Rusko, Benga, Skream et al wouldn't keep the popstep game up if it's successful. They seem mercenary enough and the music's refreshing as far as British chart-pop's concerned.

Ill Blu really need to get their arses in gear on this one.

what good pop songs have ill blu produced apart from frontline? roskas a more likely candidate than ill blu as far as someone who could join the nummy SAW than them, even if i cant think of any great songs hes produced either.

weirdly i like that stadium dubstep tune by nero that radio 1 was playing. the saw theory only works if theres other artists in line after katy b. i dont know of any so far though.

what good pop songs have ill blu produced apart from frontline? roskas a more likely candidate than ill blu as far as someone who could join the nummy SAW than them, even if i cant think of any great songs hes produced either.

Basically I want more along the lines of their Cheryl Cole and Sabrina Washington remixes.

Jakwob might be a contender. He's already remixed a whole bunch of singers in that accessible stadium style.

As for singers, I'm sure if Katy B is successful, they'll have tons of people queuing up for production work.

Katy B isn't really very "stadium" though, the last thing I want is a load of singers fronting awful sub-Chase & Status type productions.

but the only guy who seems to be consistently good at making songs is geeneus. benga and skream seem a bit hit and miss (still dont like on a mission thaaaaat much). if theyre gonna be some sort of hit factory theyre only gonna be as good as the talent theyre producing. cos katy b is the one who can write songs it seems, not that lot.

cos katy b is the one who can write songs it seems, not that lot

yes, so glad someone said this - imo automatically going producer-centric is entirely the wrong way to be assessing katy b (also any attempt to make her a genre figurehead)

well its obv isnt it. those guys still cant write songs. just listen to that awful magnetic man album!

and not being producer centric i think is a good idea. that sort of thinking is what leads to so many american R&B duds.

i think it goes against what i think the important thing about katy b is, this sense that she's not going to get bogged down in genre wars or boundaries - whenever she's been asked about "dubstep" or "funky" or whatever she's consistently answered that she doesn't want to represent those genres, and her thing is rather versatility over any sort of beat, from house to r&b.

right, which is good for her in the long run, she wont be tied to any one scene or genre. in a few years she will therefore be able to make big fat ballads without much duress.

it's also the total opposite perspective of the nerd boy debate that's often bogged down these scenes.

OTM. This is what I like about her (even though I think the album's solid rather than great).

ive a feeling the album will be just average, if only cos they want to make her a pop star in 2011, so are therefore inhibited from really doing anything too different.

I don't see the logic in that. They obviously won't do anything 'too different' from her hit singles, but the singles are her sound and what's good about her, if you like her.

I do love this girl but it makes me feel sad for Kyla.

i really fancy her too

producer vs singer/act is always a tension in this stuff

e.g. I totally adore Mis-Teeq's R&B work whereas ultimately their amazing early UKG remixes were more about the remixers than the girls (the only real exception being Alicia's amazing work on the "B With Me" remix) - i.e. to some extent the music "working" as UKG was inversely proportionate to it feeling like the product of a coherent girl group.

Though maybe that tension was exagerrated in UKG (vis a vis uk funky or dubstep or house or etc) because the tempo always necessitated speeding up the vocals.

To be clear though it never bothered me that Mis-Teeq moved away from their roots as they were excellent R&B divas too, and I actually prefer their second album over their first (though that is ace also).

I do love this girl but it makes me feel sad for Kyla.

ny is the one that really should be attaining equal or greater success - such a good songwriter

ny was/is great. though i dont know much else apart from fallin (which was amazing). but id rather katy b than miss fire. no idea what all the web fuss over her is about. sounds like amateur hour.

kyla obv has a lovely voice but apart from do you mind i sense shes only as good as whoever shes working with.

Been listening to this a bit more. The lyrics are really straightforward and kind of charming, a bit like Mike Skinner or Lily Allen, but without the hard manning of either. She comes across rather sweet on the few tracks I listend to on the way into work this morning.

I also really liked the original of Addictive's "Domino Effect", those poor girls never really stood a chance though.

Does the album have a Weak Become Heroes-style consciously euphoric-communal moment? Feels like it should have one.

No, but it does have a long list of thank yous at the end of the last track, which is quite endearing even though I never want to hear again.

xpost
Haha, I'm yet to delve that deep. But there is a song about getting chatted up in a bar followed by a fairly reasonable shopping list detailing what she looks for in a lad.

xpost endearing was the word I was looking for, thanks DL.

(PS I sometimes think your posts are my posts and it gets kinda confuse)

so good

8 song project 10/29 come thru

the new single which isn't on youtube so i can't link it is kind of a jazzy R&B number, kinda cool

I think I consciously leaned into my R&B side more on this project. With the clubs being closed, it reflects what I’d be listening to and vibing to at home. My top 10 songs are classic R&B songs, I’m a nostalgia head and I wanted to bring that throwback feel to the music.

This isn’t a project necessarily made for the clubs, I’d say it’s a soundtrack to a pre-drinks soirée with your girls. That may surprise some people. These songs are a taste of what’s to come, I’m dropping Easter eggs all over this project. I want people to find an escape in these songs, I want them to feel hope but also the power within themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH7xtKbcBuY

fantastic stuff

wait the EP just came out last week & no one at all noticed? it got zero coverage anywhere i had no idea

oh no it got delayed to today, that makes much more sense

it's absolutely gorgeous, lovely chill vibes but i kinda wish she'd been able to come up with another track or two to make it a proper album though

did no one else listen to this at all? still really enjoying it

i'm enjoying it too! i'd still prefer her to be making less low-key songs but it's accomplished

its very good

it's pretty good

I'm less patient when the beats slow

going to check this out today

it's okay, although there's nothing quite as thrilling as on her first album. might be too much to ask her to repeat the more dancey styles of "on a mission", but this more grown-up pop-soul thing isn't particularly exciting for me and i think there's stuff out there that's simil;ar but better.

I still need to listen to her newest one, but in the meantime, On A Mission is still one of my favourites of the last decade, Movement is pretty close to a perfect song to me.

Was I always like this?
Or did I have some kind of fun?