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

Video's okay; who's the MIA lookalike; I think I spied her in the Broken Record vid too...?

Royal T remix

http://soundcloud.com/royaltmusic/katy-b-easy-please-me-royal-t

This is more like it, at last a bit of energy!

Naw, the laid-back voibes are totally the point imo

I found the album kinda boring, the bangers don't bang they just kinda clunk and the other tracks are good but don't bang enough despite sounding like thy're kinda aiming for that. Nothing reaches the energy of As I or Tell Me, those two hit that ballance really well. Oh I kinda like Lights On... But thats about it.

I had to listen to the whole of the magnetic man album last night. Just imagine

I used to like magnetic man and the solo production work of the 3 dudes responsible for that shit.saw them live a few years back etc.just imagine.

Okay that royal t mix sounds lovely

Magnetic Man material is kind of entertainingly bland for mainstream appeal imo

I wish that Royal T mix had gone for limber 2-step all the way through because I was really enjoying the verses but that lumpen bass stodge in the chorus kills it stone dead.

I can see why that bass might put some off yeah. I'd like to hear it on a nice club system to see how well it works Royal T tracks usualy sound pretty hefty/viseral in that department. I like it when he goes for that 2-step vibe, he did a pretty fun mix recently on that tip too: http://xpldr.tumblr.com/post/5645159786/listen-royal-t-i

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwHe0ddggig

I really like this! Someone (Johnny Fever, I think?) played it in the listening room last night. Posting it here, cause it's totally post-Katy.

da, that was me.

yeah word on the (major label hype) street is this will be a hit

Stating the obvious, but it sounds like a turbo-charged Unfinished Sympathy.

this is fantastic!

yeah i'm feeling "heaven". rev you know emeli sandé was on wiley's "never be your woman" the other year? great vocal.

Hey, could one of you Britishers d/l the "Heaven" video for me? It's not viewable in my country and I can't even get it via proxy. :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883yQqdOaLg

omg i love "heaven"! i would love to see the video too

same

Found it w/o region restriction: http://vimeo.com/26820938

Nice.

Yeah, it's nice but it's not so much post-Katy as Unfinished Sympathy with the drum breaks speeded up? (And I thought that before I saw Chewy's comment.)

i really like "heaven" but i kinda wish the beat wasn't just "perfect stranger" reheated

"Perfect Stranger" != "Funky Drummer"

*cough*Emeli Sandé*

aoty?

It's certainly up there, in most other years it would be.

Live Stream of her concert on MTV.com (30 minutes in):

http://read.mtvhive.com/live-in-nyc-katy-b-livestream/

i was there

she was SO good

her band is a great addition to the live show. the hype man was kinda weird, though. he only showed up for three songs and spent most of them offstage yelling. i started wondering if his mic wasn't going through to the stream, so it would keep the appearance of the energy being totally her doing.

still, i couldn't be happier right now.

So jealous. It looked it was really fun. Her "ordinary girl" appeal is a much needed alternative

i repent for sleeping heavy on this amazing album

i was never overwhelmed by her singles until "easy please me" & "witches' brew" (two of my favorites on here) but the depth of quality songwriting throughout this album really surprised (& pleased) me

i think there's a rare quality here for a dance pop album (?) where neither the beats nor vocals overshadow the other... it's all very seamless and natural

otm

she's just a really dope songwriter overall

It's all very well having a big stack of great singles but it's the quality of songs like Movement, Go Away and Disappear that elevate it to a great album.

At the other end of the year I'm probably playing this more than PJ Harvey now.

Can someone add neneh cherry to the j0rdan s listening club thread

it's gonna be really hard to decide between pj harvey/katy b/beyoncé for my album of the year but it's pretty hard to see beyond that all-female top 3 right now, nothing comes close to them

Beyonce's out of the reckoning for me, the highs are very high indeed but there's still a sense of nagging patchiness and the ending doesn't feel particularly satisfying, whereas the other two end on either an emotionally devastating note or a triumphant bow. But it's the difference between top five and top three.

the beyoncé ending with the bonus tracks = double whammy for schholin' life/dance for you = an ending which is JUST FINE BY ME

*schoolin

I don't really like Dance For You, but I'm not really counting bonus tracks anyway. 'Party' aside, the first three quarters of 4 has this amazing upward momentum to it, and then it gets a bit lost at the end.

Whereas On A Mission is perfectly ordered and paced. I dunno, I just get a slight feeling of too many cooks about the Beyonce album. But like I said it's largely amazing and there aren't too many records I've enjoyed more.

i kind of think of the ending proper as "end of time" which works really well tbh, given that i see no reason to ever listen to "i was here" and i think of "run the world" as a thoroughly amazing but completely separate single. but in practice it's end of time => lay up under me => schoolin' life => dance for you. yessss

On A Mission is a really solid album, but after playing it loads for about a week or two earlier in the year, I just don't feel like I have that much to come back to. Might dig it out again.

For me the quality of year's best albums is so high that having to edit tracks out is a strike against though.

Anyway this is Katy's thread and there isn't a single track on her album I ever want to skip.

Katy's album is more consistent, but the highs are higher on Beyonce's and I find myself playing it way more.

is Witches Brew a single now too? I didn't know...

Have been listening to this more lately and loving the album tracks like Go Away and Disappear. this album is seriously getting better on the re-listens.

i love power on me, its defo my favourite off the album atm