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

Andy Gill's review is a classic of pretending you know what you're talking about when you plainly don't have a clue.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-reviews-sun-kil-moon-tinariwen-temples-sunn-o-katy-b-serge-gainsbourg-9112193.html

"'Aaliyah' basically involves transferring a standard Italian house piano-vamp to synth, and adding syncopated bleeps and dutiful drum programme."

pulsing dubstep synths relentlessly driving things to the lowest common denominator

How has this decrepit old tadpole ever managed to sustain a career in music journalism? He was saying exactly the same things about hip hop in the 1985 NME and he evidently hasn't learned anything since then. This is the other extreme to "OTT love"; lazy writing that essentially says the writer hasn't bothered to listen to the record.

If I was still doing CoM I'd be posting a long piece comparing the new Katy B and Planningtorock records in detail - one maximalist, the other minimalist, but both pointing to the same focus (what is the pain the singer is describing, and what means does she use to find her way out of it?) - but I'm not, so if anybody wants to read it then get in touch and offer to publish and I'll write it. Unfortunately, not being a bratty 20yr old who takes the piss out of everything, there's little chance of that happening.

Has anyone written really well about her vocals yet?

Presumably you have your reasons for not approaching the Quietus? Because that's the obvious outlet unless you want £££

Alas, you got my Achilles heel in the last four words there...

Well it's a good thing there's this

http://thequietus.com/articles/14485-katy-b-interview-little-red

KB: Do you know what, I love the night bus. I got the night bus from central to Streatham the other day and it was the most fun experience. First of all, we were at the bus stop and my friend fell over. But there's that camaraderie on the night bus. You can always talk to someone - it's so much less uptight than the day bus. People are just…themselves, so much more chilled out. But then you get the arguments as well, it's brilliant.

OMG, On A Mission was being in the club, and Little Red is the N159 home. This makes SO MUCH sense now.

I'm just going to hear this album as a crazy night bus ride now, this is just *perfect*.

(I don't know what drugs she's on to make an N159 "the most fun" but probably not Valium, heh)

Makes sense. It's the album I always put on when I'm on the bus home from work.

great interview, alex

thx BB and j0rdan

i was inspired by her complete confusion at the idea she'd ever be too old for the club

yeah i loved that interview

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

― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Sunday, 9 February 2014 16:31 (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

speaking of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J_P4GrRyLE

beautiful

Nice interview:

http://www.factmag.com/2014/02/13/give-it-time-katy-b-on-the-rebirth-of-house/

it's the way the melody on crying for no reason goes back up on "promises i could not KEEP?" and "i felt strong but i am breaking NOW?" that gives the whole thing a sing-songy, reading-the-sheet-music vibe that sort of kills the vibe for me, sadly

a very interior paranoid/euphoric club record

i've only listened to the continuous mix so far, it for sure has the feel of a ~monologue~, which is sure a thing

wait, it keeps going for another 20–30 minutes, why

why lex i never knew you held the rbma in such high r£gard

Number one in the album chart this week. Think On a Mission only missed out as it was released during Adele's never ending run in 2011. Crying went back into the top five too.

Wonder what they will pick as the next single from this. I'm thinking giving Aaliyah a proper release would give her another massive hit. Emotions would do well but might be seen as a bit too similar to Crying For No Reason.

Number one in the album chart this week.

― Kitchen Person, Sunday, February 16, 2014

you mean in the uk, i assume?

it would be fantastic -- and totally improbable -- for this album to go to no. 1 in the usa.

Oh yeah sorry should have specified that. Didn't think it's been properly released in the US yet.

does it even have a us release date yet? i was hoping it'd be out at the same time as in the uk etc but now that she has american management i guess they might be trying to make something happen with her over here before they put it out.

For discarding "Hot Like Fire" as a bonus track she should be committed.

Just thinking how lovely yet improbable it would be if the US release was with a rearranged track listing similar to the continuous mix.

OMG, this is the first time in I don't even know how long that I have bought the number 1 album the week that it came out.

How very... odd. But still, yay! I am still v v pleased, well done Katy B.

"Everything" is like, one bell sample away from being produced by Pantha Du Prince

I came here to say something similar to this! I think the instrumental could be a substantial song on it's own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKIf5C5xshU

that's ace

it is!

Damn, "I Like You" is pummeling me.

It's the ear grabber. I keep mumbling "I like you a little bit."

It was already my mantra, so

SFJ talked about Katy as a potential "sade for this generation" which seems really wrong to me

There's a voice on this album that sonically resembles Sade's, but it's not Katy's.

Yeah, the two vocal hooks that grab me after about 8 listens are "I like you (a little bit...)" and "I like ghetto, you like bougie..."

But you know who I miss on this record? I miss Oliviaaarrrr.

I miss her too, or at least, I miss the feeling of Katy as always surrounded by friends and just one part of a group. It felt like it was a big part of her appeal.

She still feels like she's surrounded by a group, but other clubbers seem to have become competitors rather than mates?

SFJ talked about Katy as a potential "sade for this generation" which seems really wrong to me

― PSY talks The Nut Job (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 5:59 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

I mean Jessie Ware already exists so...

oboy, maybe i misremembered and he was talking about Jessie; that would make FAR more sense
nevermind

it was a disclosure piece so that would make more sense. my bad.

katy b as sade doesn't really make much of any sense but it's sort of interesting if you imagine the future of music as strictly beat based

ware as sade doesnt really fly either tbh imo

tell her that

would rather hear katy b/sade comparisons than jessie ware/sade ones because they'd be entertainingly nuts rather than lazily inaccurate. we went over jessie ware/sade at length in her thread, i believe

and that would be my cue i guess

hmm lemme think

yeah i mean i guess sade is kind of a bit of both, albeit on an ineffably higher celestial plane

like essentially ware is v much superficial haught/froidieur veiling a thumping heart, buffeted by the sweeping tides of wildest moomins

katy is more among the gurlz so to speak but shares a little of sade's sphinxlike quality all the same - her reports from the high street nightbus frontlines aren't dear diary stuff, there's a psychic armour there, and even in essaying the most vulnerable times there's a deliberate aspect, a writerly methodology that suggests closure, an emotional deletion process

would bet all my chips without question that ware is the funner night out

but either way as i say, mere jesters in the royal court of the king of sorrow tbh

Hmm. She may not indulge hysteria and keep her poise but I don't hear Sade as sphinx-like.

Annie Lennox is closer to sphinx.