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

I don't see the name 'Hot Like Fire' anywhere there :( It was by miles the best of the new songs when she played live.

I might get pregnant and make a country album

Would obviously win an ILM EOY poll.

I was playing one of those DJ Q mixes in my car and at the end the Danger EP came on. It was a nice surprise, I had forgotten that I'd put it there.

album called little red with two tracks that say blue

(if I still blogged about music that would be 100 words, lucky everyone)

Piano ballad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PV4A6N396M&feature=youtu.be&cid=nl%3A796457338&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ukcolumbia-katyb&utm_campaign=email|20131220&utm_content=nllink-2f7a5f20-4.%20Crying%20for%20No%20Reason

just got the email!

Matt, "Hot Like Fire" is on the deluxe edition (but it looks like they've removed "What Love Is Made Of"?):

1. Next Thing
2. 5 AM
3. Aaliyah (feat. Jessie Ware)
4. Crying for No Reason
5. I Like You
6. All My Lovin'
7. Tumbling Down
8. Everything
9. Play (feat. Sampha)
10. Sapphire Blue
11. Emotions
12. Still
13. Blue Eyes (deluxe only)
14. Stay Down (deluxe only)
15. Hot Like Fire (deluxe only)
16. Wicked Love (deluxe only)
17. Sky's the Limit (deluxe only)
18. Little Red (Continuous Mix) (deluxe only)

i saw her on that the bbc music show hosted by that former squeeze guy. she was good! she followed paul mccartney, and his song became instantly forgettable (not really a fair comparison at this stage of their respective lives, but still . . . )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOboa27SHDE

when i first heard this via soundcloud clip i became legitimately worried that her album might be subpar or at least patchy but now i have warmed up to it. as far as emo-trance ballads it's not quite "go away" or anything but it builds in a way that manages to be affecting to me

I really love this crying for no reason song. bewildered by the negative comments in here.

the negative comments came largely from when the only thing available was a 1:30 clip

agreed though, i love the song

It took a couple of spins, admittedly.

This could well be number 1 next week.

i'm quite surprised how much traction/buzz this song is getting. especially considering two underperforming singles leading into a sophomore album is so often a death knell

Crying For No Reason is getting Radio 2 play, which might account for its impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9oUQqkmwlI

damn

This could well be number 1 next week.

really? wow. good for her.

katy b's performance in that clip just gave me chills.

Think that MNEK track w/ Gorgon City is likelier to get to #1 but it has a top 5 chance I think. Depends on how things go during the week.

Both tracks are terrific.

i know she sings "now the pain is hitting me full force" in the chorus but i kind of prefer imagining the real lyrics to be a cricket-referencing mondegreen, namely "now the pain is hitting me for fours"

happy for her success though am still a bit irritated that of all the uk funky divas, she was the one whos been groomed and plucked out for success. *posting like its 2010*

Or, yknow, had the tunes to give her success.

right, cos fuzzy logik and egypt's In The Morning didnt have a tune... i think its pretty clear why she was considered a better bet.

Uh oh

you mean because of her looks, i assume?

(can't think of what else would be so "pretty clear" that it wouldn't need to be stated expressly. she isn't the close-relative of a media-mogul, as far as i know, and that would be the only other thing that might be "so clear").

Think that MNEK track w/ Gorgon City is likelier to get to #1 but it has a top 5 chance I think. Depends on how things go during the week.

― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony)

Seems like they picked a competitive week as Will.i.am has a new single out too. I can still see this being a massive hit for her.

wait, how many other uk funky tracks did katy b have? "lights on" is the only one i can think of

DJ NG's "Tell Me"
Geeneus' "As I"
Geeneus' version of "Good Life"

I think that was it

"Tell Me" was probably the scene's first homegrown vocal smash (pretty sure it was earlier than e.g. "Do You Mind" or Donae'o's "Devil In A Blue Dress") so her later success doesn't seem particularly unfair or arbitrary from that vantage point.

oh yes how could i forget "tell me"?? still my favorite track of hers

also jelly jams 'i try'

you mean because of her looks, i assume?

(can't think of what else would be so "pretty clear" that it wouldn't need to be stated expressly. she isn't the close-relative of a media-mogul, as far as i know, and that would be the only other thing that might be "so clear").

i assumed people were referring to her race tbh.

i've no idea what went on behind the scenes w/r/t katy b being the "chosen one" instead of ny or egypt or kyla or whoever - i don't doubt that ny in particular, from what we've heard of her songwriting, could have plausibly made an album on the level of on a mission. but katy was the one who DID make it, and to call her "groomed" for success downplays her own substantial talent, charisma and vision. it'd be naive not to note that of all the uk funky divas knocking around, the white girl got the commercial breakthrough - but who knows what combination of ambition, talent, work ethic or whatever went into that. ny aside, it's not like any of the others ever made anything other than one-off wondrous singles, there's no underrated uk funky diva album knocking around as an alternative to on a mission.

and never 4get that one of her first spots was on a track with nikki s & nyke of ska riddim fame, which i now see was produced by swindle

only god nose why egypt never made it tbh

It's pretty obvious that Rinse never really expected Katy to blow up to the extent she did. She's a better songwriter than most of yr jobbing funky divas for hire, and she has a better voice than most of them as well. It's probably that coupled with ability to work internally with Geeneus etc that helped get the album recorded. Even taking race into account, if you were self-consciously grooming someone for major success in 2010 you probably wouldn't have picked Katy.

kind of, but i'm also fairly certain geeneus in selecting the first lady for his noted racist big business media conglomerate would have rightly thought he was onto something a little more distinctive than just a particularly adroit "funky diva" - even aside from the clear, simple appeal of her voice 'tell me' was an unusually thorough psychodrama stagecrafted in an r&b lineage

the position in between reflective songwriterdom and the transient immediacy of club dance has always been her entire thing, her gift and curse - i would suggest 'crying for no reason' is a genuine hit because it solves the conundrum by rexpressing it in the style of lachrymose latin freestyle telenovela dolor (cf rudipherous correctly intuiting the reggaeton vibe of 'what love is made of'). pequeña roja is a good look for her, rita hayworth, carmen miranda torch femme vibe idk

i guess maybe that's always been kind of a seemingly obscure connection that's totally obvious once you get it (poss cos uk summer gets linked to ibiza etc, also fragile vocals coming down thru lovers rock) - the consonant undertow of 2step hits and freestyle bass, something like idk underdog project 'summer jam' being simultaneously both romford and miami

even aside from the clear, simple appeal of her voice

Let's not rush past this also - to make a perhaps odd comparison, I'd say katy b's voice has a lot of the same distinct appeals vis a vis other dance divas that kacey musgrave's does vis a vis other country singers.

the position in between reflective songwriterdom and the transient immediacy of club dance has always been her entire thing, her gift and curse

yeah totally

http://rinse.fm/artists/katyb/

The girl wasn’t a fluke. Geeneus got in touch. "As soon as I heard her I knew there was something about her voice. I was writing a lot of grimy music, and the scene was all getting a bit overcrowded with men. We can make ravey bassline music all day long. We needed the girl element back in it. When I’ve played this album to girls they don’t care about the background music – they couldn’t care less. They’re like, “Oh… the lyrics.” It wasn’t planned like that. But that’s what Katy supplies."

xp well yeah (idk about musgraves but) it's that sugababesness, callow teen realness with a disarming wisdom. as i say it's like a lovers rock / punk intersection forever haunting the ldn bluster imo

I hadn't considered the Musgraves connection but otm: what in other contexts is a workaday voice imbuing the material with intimations of mortality.

I like the Kacey comparison. Both have an intense likeability that connects with people regardless of genre. Even some similarity in lyrical approach (although Kacey is sharper) - Katy says she starts songs with a visual image or scenario in her head and then tries to describe it.

It's pretty obvious that Rinse never really expected Katy to blow up to the extent she did. She's a better songwriter than most of yr jobbing funky divas for hire, and she has a better voice than most of them as well. It's probably that coupled with ability to work internally with Geeneus etc that helped get the album recorded. Even taking race into account, if you were self-consciously grooming someone for major success in 2010 you probably wouldn't have picked Katy.

― Matt DC, Monday, January 27, 2014 3:50 AM Bookmark

Also the Magnetic Man connection definitely gave her a leg up, as dodgy as they can be sometimes.

Kyla and Egypt both effectively had one really good song each, right?

My expectations are actually pretty low for this album. None of the singles have done much for me.

i still think there's enough room for it to be brilliant... or completely disappointing.

"crying for no reason" has grown on me and "5 AM" never needed to but yeah, this could go either way for me

i still think there's enough room for it to be brilliant... or completely disappointing.

yeah it's weird i like all the singles so far a lot without LOVING them, they all sound like great album cuts. feel like i could be on the verge of loving "crying for no reason" tho, having totally dismissed it at first

So I'm just three years late on this one but I have fallen completely in love with her first album. That Graham Norton performance of Crying for no Reason made me really fall for that song so I thought I'd actually try the first album despite not really liking the singles when it came out (mainly On a Mission and Lights On) I now know it's just a fantastic album all the way through. It sounds like the kind of album Sugababes could have put out after One Touch if they'd kept that original lineup. You all know this of course and are waiting for the next album, just thought I'd add myself to her fanclub.

Oh and I cannot unhear the "Now if there's one thing I can't stand it's Africans" line. Every single time!