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

I'm holding it to REAL standards - ie the first album.

The worst track here by miles is the one with Sampha (people in the music industry REALLY need to stop trying to make Sampha happen), but 'Still' reminds me a lot of 'Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?' by Moby. Neither are a good look for Katy. 'Crying For A Reason' is great in theory but slushy in practice. 'All Loving' is a good Katy ballad though, although that's basically 'Go Away' pt 2.

Just one track with the unbridled joy of 'Got Paid' or the mischievous spark of 'Easy Please Me' would leaven this a lot.

It's a bit like she's a rapper and 'On A Mission' was the mixtape and this is the major label debut.

no i mean the "bonus tracks don't count" line. obviously it bespeaks the pissing around and triangulation you mentioned but they're still amazing songs! "super bass" was a bonus track, lest we forget. i guess the point i'm trying to make is that there are lots of amazing songs and their quality manages to override everyone's best efforts to make this an actual botch job

I like this album the closer it stays to the personality of Katy B that's been established, and less the further it moves from that to that of a Major Pop Star. I've never thought her strength was in powerful vocals but in the way her songwriting and nuance for performance really sold the songs and the idea of Katy B as a girl-next-door, fun but headstrong character - but there are parts of this album where it feels like it could be anyone rolling along Rudimental's factory line of guest vocalists. I'm not sure I believe that she can't be a massive star while keeping the essence of what makes her sparkle but this album isn't the way it could have been done.

and no, it's nowhere near as good as on a mission and even allowing for some of these songs to grow on me i doubt it'll by an EOY favourite but also it's february and there aren't really any better 2014 albums around yet (apart from toni braxton & babyface but that's hardly a big pop release or anything surprising)

You can buy copies of the album without Hot Like Fire etc = they don't really count. Obviously they will in the future when the Deluxe issue is the only one but for now it really does feel like they've been tacked on the end as an afterthought. Why is it not just a 15-track album? Really they should have been the first things on the tracklisting, not sitting on the subs bench.

I mean this is very much the way of post-death of the music industry pop music but Superbass was also very nearly a victim of a cloddish record company who didn't know what they had. Either that or they knew full well and just wanted to sell more copies at a later date.

boxedjoy and Matt DC otm about the weak songs and why they're weak.

The flaw with Deluxe editions, unlike B-sides which came out one by one, is that they can't help making you want to rearrange the tracklisting and judge the existing album more harshly. Like Christina Aguilera's Bionic actually seemed even more misguided when you realised that most of the bonus tracks were better. It's like the artist and label are inviting the listener to pick apart their decision-making.

Just one track with the unbridled joy of 'Got Paid'

"everything"

fyi the infinity ink remix of "crying for no reason" is quite something

https://soundcloud.com/katyb/crying-for-no-reason-infinity-ink-remix

very sympathetic to matt's idea that you shouldn't have to redraw the whole sequence of an album with bonus tracks added to remotely like it, that's a point against it, but there is also a literally available for purchase version of this record with a functional tracklisting

*deep breath* i think i like this record more than on a mission at this point. matt makes the point that this record should have been katy and geeneus running circles around pop but i like it for what it is: a very interior paranoid/euphoric club record. on a mission does a lot of different things and does them all well, but i like the focus of little red (sonically, 17 tracks can't really be called "focused"), and through that focus it becomes a record about its individual, subtle details, which sort of gently circulate into view (the bridge of "sapphire blue," the droning synth in "i like you")

it's frustrating because my first listen to this was so middling! i wasn't expecting to go to bat for this record at all, yet i haven't really wanted to listen to another record for the last week

That Infinity Ink remix is the real deal.

it's frustrating because my first listen to this was so middling! i wasn't expecting to go to bat for this record at all, yet i haven't really wanted to listen to another record for the last week

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, February 12, 2014 10:24 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah i'm with you on this and i think i might like this more than 'on a mission' at this point too

A couple of rockcrit friends who are meh on female dance pop instantly liked this album. Suspicious, I've listened to the album repeatedly and the only one which now stuns me after shrugging it off was "Crying For No Reason." I don't think I'll wake up humming "Still" or "Play." I mean, it's still a good album but in the A-/B+ range.

"better than you initially think" is one thing but "better than on a mission" is clinically insane

and it's not such a departure that you can go "oh well they're so different that you can't really compare"

yeah sarge I blinked several times after reading your post

My head is still so full of Interpol that after 4 listens I still don't have any of these songs stuck in my head. But I think that's due to the intensity of that listening experience, rather than failure to be catchy. 17 songs is a lot to process in one go. Especially when all of them seem to be about "blue".

My head is still so full of Interpol

you may need a penicillin shot

I think I need the full retroviral. :-/

Still' reminds me a lot of 'Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?' by Moby

yeah I was wondering if someone had brought this up yet

fully aware that i'm insane

and it's not such a departure that you can go "oh well they're so different that you can't really compare"

― lex pretend, Wednesday, February 12, 2014 5:30 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

i think it's more different than you guys are giving it credit for

vocally, for one, i think she is doing things on this record that she didn't do on 'on a mission'

also the point of view is a bit... refined i think. there was still some, like, schoolgirl innocence to 'on a mission' that has been shed here.

there's definitely an energy (in several ways) to 'on a mission' that isn't on this album but i kinda feel it a bit deeper

Would you describe it as "a little deeper".

it certainly doesn't easy please me

STIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL... man, this is such an amazing closer on the mix, putting it on before the bonus tracks so that Blue Eyes comes after it is just *insane* sequencing logic. But I think that's the fault of "bonus tracks" rather than sequencing. Why can't bonus tracks be sequenced better?

why isn't the sun hot?

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.