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

I want to argue this thing is poorly sequence except I wouldn't know where to start resequencing. It's hard to evaluate a release as an album when a considerable portion has leaked in advance; cobbling it together again affects my thinking of it as a whole, if that makes sense. "Still," "Play," and "Sapphire Blue" sound like curate's eggs to me.

*poorly sequenced too

Question: which song from the first album has had the most resonance for you guys?

"Power On Me" and "Hard to Get."

but "everything" and "emotions" are the best songs!

oh i love "everything" but i just meant "tumbling down", which seems to last several years, is where the album just loses its momentum and flow completely. i've actually had to make an alternate track listing, i never ever actually do that but it's the only way to salvage these excellent songs

I like the harmonies on "Tumbling Down" -- reminded me of mid eighties Prince.

It's hard to evaluate a release as an album when a considerable portion has leaked in advance

well, released as singles!

um, do you guys...have the bonus tracks? without them i might well be calling this a disappointment. some of the most striking songs there, all really good

ha i don't think i've ever done that

i have no real feel for sequencing

"blue eyes" is really good

wasn't gonna post my alternate track listing til the thing was actually out but here we go

next thing
everything
i like you
blue eyes
sapphire blue
stay down
emotions
aaliyah
hot like fire
all my lovin'
wicked love
crying for no reason
5 am
sky's the limit

tumbling down/play/still can be bonus tracks if they want

oh i talked to her today and at least have an answer as to why "hot like fire" is just a bonus track

she had no excuse for "blue eyes"

please say she made "hot like fire" a bonus track so she can "super bass" it

i'm imagining she's just sent it to t-swift right now while she's in the uk so she can impromptu sing it on the radio

Don't have the bonus tracks, dig the album. Really like 'Play' and 'Tumbling Down' - 'Still' can get the boot though.

i sorta feel like she came for adele's neck with this album and i'm not even mad at her

i don't get that impression at ALL unless anyone focusing on slow songs is automatically pitching themselves against adele? everything about them is wildly different.

the production on this album is still pretty heavily rooted in uk dance, it's still unmistakeably the katy & gee show

i have a suspicion that you wouldn't like "hot like fire" so much if it wasn't named after an aaliyah song, i think that's one of the worst songs

tim jonze a bit harsh today i thought

it has nothing to do with the aaliyah song? i can assure you that aaliyah worship is not exactly a means to win me over. it's one of the most immediate, anyway

i think this is totally a transition album, i also think it's kinda great

"still" was co written by an adele collaborator and though "emotions" is a total rudimental track i do feel like adele could've come back "crying for no reason" and people would've flipped

Yeah, after some of the pre-release talk I was surprised listening to it how much this was 'like the first' in its uk dance roots and general low-key beauty. Except for Still I guess.

is there a reason why the continuous mix has a completely different ordering to the standard tracklist? it works so much better.

What's the continuous mix tracklisting?

crying for no reason
sapphire blue
i like you
everything
tumbling down
play
aaliyah
next thing
blue eyes
5 am
sky's the limit
wicked love
stay down
all my lovin'
emotions
hot like fire
still

"Next Thing" is way more uk funky than I expect of her (or anyone, really) at this point

wow i'm about the sequencing of the continuous mix

I'm glad I ordered the deluxe version, that continuous mix looks fantastic.

continuous mix makes me actually like "tumbling down" and "play"

"blue eyes" is seriously blowing my mind right now.

and "stay down" is just the most gorgeous heartbreaking thing ever. whoever decided upon what should be on the standard version needs a long hard look at themselves.

Blue Eyes was maybe the standout for me first go around, yeah.

so yeah this blue eyes song kind of reminds me in parts of sweet female attitude's "flowers" which is about the highest compliment i can pay anything

yes! my initial thought when listening to it was of the artful dodger mix of valerie m's "tingles 2000" but that makes much more sense.

just going in on the continuous mix and feeling v vindicated. why the hell wasn't this the actual track listing?

i changed the actual tracklisting to reflect it. "hot like fire" as a penultimate track is weird but otherwise it works perfectly

whats the line ware sings starting with "i don't believe...", been trying to work it out

― r|t|c, Friday, December 7, 2012 7:57 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also this is v belated but i heard this last week and couldn't believe it ever stumped me. "i don't believe i can defend him", right?

ya i'd always assumed it was that but the line still sounds fudged somewhat

vox aside the lp version is reproduced a tad clearer i think

going to give this lp the grace of another chance sometime but i must admit the first blush leant towards insipid

yes! my initial thought when listening to it was of the artful dodger mix of valerie m's "tingles 2000" but that makes much more sense.

― prolego, Sunday, February 9, 2014 7:17 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3 you for even thinking of this tune as a reference point for anything.

holy shit this is a grower

man, the continuous mix really is far superior. jeez.

the bridge of "all my lovin" seriously reminds me of that rihanna song that interpolates "pony"

So you guys reckon the "continuous mix" is worth the £2 for the upgrade?

Hmmm, going in now.

the continuous mix does make it more amazing, but re-ordering the individual tracks would probably work too. but the bonus tracks are definitely worth the extra £

Yeah, I've splashed out for it, downloading now. Await giddy glee in about 20 minutes...

My hard drive is now so full I have to operate on a one in/one out policy to add more albums on iTunes. Scrapped the turgid Atoms for Peace album for this, which feels kinda symbolic. :-/

Why are pop albums so L O O O O N N N N G G G G these days?

Getting to the point where 11, 12 songs in a row is the upper limit of my attention span.

I would eyeroll at this album if the whole thing weren't so sad.

Like, the continuous mix is okay but all it does is frontload all the insipid shit and really who wants that? The first half of this album is mostly good, the second half of the album proper is, by and large, flimsy and weak. And they certainly shouldn't have been roping in fucking hack Robbie Williams songwriting guns for hire (Crying For No Reason is still dreadful).

The bonus tracks are fantastic, yes, but (pardon my rockism here) they're bonus tracks, people will buy versions of this album without them. It's like whoever was responsible didn't feel they were good enough or something?

A Deluxe Edition where the bonus tracks are, by and large, the best bits, is a surefire sign of a project that's been unnecessarily pissed about with and triangulated to death. The fact that you're all working out alternative tracklistings shows that this album kinda already lost, like it should be a fucking TRIUMPH. It should be Katy and Geeneus doing victory laps around the pop landscape they helped usher in, and beating everyone else at their own gamne, not "hey you can make a decent album out of it if you shunt some tracks round and squint a bit".

This wouldn't matter so much if On A Mission hadn't been BOTH a peerless collection of bangers AND an album-qua-album that worked really well as a complete listen. I'm being harsh here, but really this album was only ever going to be a triumph or a failure for me, minimal middle-ground, raise your standards people.

Sorry you lost me calling CFNR dreadful.

I need to go back and look where the "official album" begins and ends to make up my mind on how I feel about it being too long/the bonus tracks being so much obviously better.

But I am now going to listen to the continuous mix.

On first listen, I think DC is a curmudgeon (as usual) because it's certainly not shit. I do completely hear the "badly sequenced" complaints, because yeah, it's not as "albumy" as the first one, but I am still bouncing up and down on the bed and annoying my neighbours with immediate excitement for some tracks but kinda "meh" on others.