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

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

Does she have any imitators other than Emeli Sande yet?

jess mills and delilah riding the post-katy b wave too

and yasmin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsNBQJEofQM&ob=av2e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxNe9jWNuEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbmm_hXcrA0&ob=av2e

there's cleo sol too, this single isn't very katy b-like (though it is great) but she's vocalled several uk funky tracks in the past and probably will do so again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPr6YY7kDaI

i don't see any of those as being "post-katy".

oh i know they predate katy and aren't following in her wake soundwise, it's more the sudden major label push to their careers

or whatever, i'm typing in a hurry so if you want to nitpick go ahead cuz i have 949039483 thoughts in my head atm

no, that was pretty much all i thought save maybe qualifying "sudden push" a little (has katy sold well enough to count as a gravy train? maybe she has, idk). it looked like you were running with rev's imitators line.

Thanks. The Yasmin is the best (and most Katy B-like) of the bunch. Cleo Sol was cool, too. I think I'd like the Delilah more with a better singer, and Jess Mills didn't do anything for me at all. Also, hellllllllooooooooooooooo Yasmin.

The unexpected Public Enemy squeal coda is so great.

yasmin's other two singles this year -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HO-E0mlmEc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQcwuAhJ4Ms

also it's just struck me that a lot of people in here won't have checked ruff diamondz - GOT ME BURNIN - new UK girl group, their current single was produced by geeneus and written by katy b. and it's EXCELLENT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNArt8VbCqo&ob=av2e

ooh, very nice. i like.

i've been loving yasmin's singles for the most part.

Royal T did a pretty good Yasmin remix earlier in the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPVqLpMN0Vk

I thought there was a good bassline remix too but maybe I'm just remembering hearing the Royal T remix in a DJ Beez mixtape or something.

love a lot of this album, including the title track. but i just played it and when the chorus arrived, i expected it to sound ... bigger, maybe? like it was rocket that didn't quite tear out of the docking station during lift-off.

xp this is the remix you want - one of 2011's enduring little classics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptkNUvd7ADM

great show in shep bush tonight. she looked like she was having the time of her life, it was super infectious.

"movement" video like your favourite holiday photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFwGeW2HmcA

Movement is a single too now? goddamn!

DREAM VACATION

she just got a write-up in SPIN, fairly small but worth checking out if you're an utter obsessive

is it by my man's and dem powertweeter whiney g?

nick duerden? am i missing out on some intricate ilxian inside joke?

Notorious ILX rabble-rouser Whiney G. Weingarten writes for SPIN.

Katy B doesn't seem like his "thing"

he actually tweeted recently that you're an asshole if you want to listen to how to dress well (or whoever it was) instead of katy b

what if you like listening to both?

http://twitter.com/#!/1000TimesYes/status/123815014615355393

http://twitter.com/#!/1000TimesYes/status/124136955809243136

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

( Elliott Wilson fired as XXL editor-in-chief )

lol so yeah, no expression whatsoever of appreciation for anything about her music, just a furious dichotomy hurled at asshole strawmen

strawholes

Ha! I guess the 'A' doesn't stand for 'Asshole' anymore. #movingup

i love this album to death but i'm on my third week since listening to it and

"standin at the bar with my friend oliviAAA" remains not only the one line i can retain from any song, but something that just randomly interjects itself into thought

Tbh I've kind of fallen out of love with "Easy Please Me"...right now this album is all bout the title track, Go Away, Disappear, Broken Record, and Beautiful Stranger...

...waitaminnit I meant "Perfect Stranger". Duh.

I used that line to explain something in a conversation about diff accents.

xxp

How so? A lot of times, strictly going on singing voice, I almost feel Katy could be from a place like D.C. or somewhere more somewhat-accent-neutral-but-not-totally as some places in the south are

Perhaps because a more traditional London accent would pronounce it as "Oliv-e-er"?

"Olivia" and "bar" don't even come close to rhyming in my accent.