| On a Mission | ||
|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Katy B | ||
| Released | 1 April 2011 | |
| Recorded | 1 June 2007-10 December 2010 | |
| Genre | Dubstep, UK garage, funky, R&B, hip hop | |
| Length | 50:46 | |
| Label | Rinse Columbia |
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| Producer | Benga, Geeneus, Zinc | |
| Singles from On a Mission | ||
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On a Mission is the debut studio album by British dubstep singer Katy B. The album was released on April 1, 2011, by Rinse and Columbia Records and in the USA on the 13 September.[1] Katy worked with producers and writers DJ Zinc, Benga, and Rinse FM founder Geeneus. Katy had been recording songs for the album since June 2007 and continued recording for three years until December 2010. The album was heavily influenced by the singer’s life experiences and her journey into the music world.
The album received positive reviews from music critics. Many appreciated the album’s sound, deeming it original, sharp, thrilling, solid and brilliant and others. The lyrical content received heavy praise, liking Katy’s projection of emotion in to the work and the messages it sends out. Lyrically, the majority of the album's songs are based on Katy’s life experiences of love, heartbreak, boys, and clubbing. Musically, On a Mission is rooted in the electronic dance genre, while incorporating elements of dubstep, garage, UK funky, house and R&B in its production and beats. The album debuted at number 2 in the United Kingdom. The album was nominated for the 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Prize.
The album had a total of five singles released between 2010 and 2011. The first two singles from the album, "Katy on a Mission" and "Lights On", was released on August 22 and December 10, 2010 and peaked in the United Kingdom in the top five position, reaching number five and four respectively on the UK Singles (The Official Charts Company). The third single, "Broken Record", was released to commercial success in the UK, peaking at number eight on the charts. The last two singles from the album, "Easy Please Me" and "Witches Brew", failed to mimic the success of the first two singles from the album, peaking at number twenty-five and one hundred twenty-eight on the charts.
Contents |
"On a Mission" is an album structured in the electronic dance music genre, incorporating its subgenres, including dubstep, garage, UK funky, house, rave, and drum and bass.The album also takes subtle influences of contemporary R&B and 90’s dance music. The album most notably showcases Katy B’s warm, natural vocals with a feel of hostility and flirtatious eminating through the songs.[2] The music on the album has been compared to notable act in the United Kingdom like the Sugababes in the early stages of their careers,[3] Basement Jaxx,[4] Kathy Diamond,[4] and Lily Allen.[5] The songs are rich in melodies, hooks and on-point lyrics.[6] The lyrical content is centered around themes of relationships turning bitter and envious,[7] boy troubles,[8] and clubbing in London,[2] noted by many critics, from a rare genuine and frank perspective.[6]
“Easy Please Me” is a dubstep song[9] that features a casual rhyme and some humor in its lyrics,[10] poking fun at rube-boy mentality. The production of the track is centered around bouncy rakish beats and ringtone synths.[9] “Perfect Stranger” features influences of ecstatic jungle sounds and a bassline reminiscent of UK funky and dubstep music.[11] “Broken Record” is a song a "like-a-bro-ken rec-ooooord" hook that is repeated near the end of the song[11] with influences of techno,[12] drum and bass[12] and electro.[11] The vocals on the track range from melodic to intense to ambiguous. The song is similar in sound to the song “Let Me Be Your Fantasy” by Baby D.[13] “Katy on a Mission” features the use of strong vocals over sounds of buzzing electronic synthesizers, chunky,[12] stuttering beats[11] and soulful, cooing hooks.[12] “Witches Brew” was written about sly seduction.[11] Its production is centered around synthesizers,[4][12] breakbeats and influences of neo-soul tones[12] and electro.[9]
Two songs from the album, “Power on Me” and “Go Away,” are about the dynamics of relationships.[11] Power on Me displays vulnerability in Katy’s vocals[14] and is built over a funky house groove[2] with synth tones similar to those by Axel-F.[14] Go Away is structured as a down tempo[15] trip-hop [12] and trance[7] ballad.[2] Disappear is an introspective track about love and identity[11] that features jungle sounds.[12] The production of “Hard to Get” is centered around an acid jazz sound[12] with the use of trumpet.[2] Near theend of the song, Katy gives shout-outs to her family and friends.[9] Lights On is a ragga tinged[9] song that features Ms Dynamite. Movement features the influence of house music[9]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (76/100)[21] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [12] |
| BBC Music | (very positive)[10] |
| The Daily Telegraph | [22] |
| Drowned in Sound | (8/10)[7] |
| The Guardian | [23] |
| The Independent | (positive)[3] |
| NME | (8/10)[9] |
| The Observer | (positive)[13] |
| One Thirty BPM | (82%)[24] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.1/10)[11] |
| Slant Magazine | [4] |
On a Mission was well-received by most music critics. Aggregating website AnyDecentMusic? reports a score of 7.4 based on twenty-four professional reviews.[25] Natalie Shaw of BBC Music wrote that it "moves through house, dubstep, drum’n’bass, rave, UK garage and RnB with ease, attacking each with such accessibility it’s not hard to imagine each track topping the singles charts". She described the production as "sharp and cutting throughout, never losing its feverish hi-NRG" and noticed that Katy B is "a new breed of singer, adding a vibrant gloss to a new combination of sounds with a charm and personality all of her own".[10] Nate Patrin of Pitchfork Media called her "a genre-spanning pop singer who isn't tied down to a single thing, no matter how well it suits her" and felt that "what puts On a Mission over the top is Katy's way of expressing herself with emotions that extend past "wooo, druuunk" into more nuanced and detailed relationships with booming systems and the people who flock to them".[11] Ben Hogwood of musicOMH praised Brien's ability of "projecting emotion" as well as her voice, saying it "could easily sing the front page of the South London Press and have you clamouring for more" and called the lyrics "brilliantly written, at times extremely profound while at others throwing off the shackles for a night's partying".[15] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that Brien "scrupulously avoids the kind of melismatic over-singing that is the female pop star's usual lot in a post-TV talent show world" and felt that On a Mission "almost uniquely for pop music about clubbing, sounds like the work of someone's who's actually been to a club".[23] Jon O'Brien of Allmusic defined it as "a strikingly self-assured and original affair which not only convincingly captures the sound of contemporary London nightlife, but also reflects the voices of much of her late-teens/early-twenties generation".[12] Noel Gardner from Drowned in Sound called it "a sterling debut" and described it as "a pop album which comes off as written from life while also addressing the concerns of its audience".[7] Marianne Halavage of The Herald found it "brilliant" and described it as "an urban electronic feast of everything from funky house to drum’n’bass and rave".[8] Alex Denney of NME hailed it as "the British pop debut of the year".[9]
Kitty Empire from The Observer called the songs on the album "12 solidly built tunes that reflect her love of the euphoric rush of clubbing, of falling in love and the comedowns in their wake",[13] while Simon Price of The Independent described On a Mission as "a debut album of subtle, mature, intelligent electronic pop, reminiscent of Sugababes before it all went wrong" and felt that it "sounds like a modern pop classic".[3] Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine felt that it is "a bright, cheerfully mainstream-friendly record that's almost completely built from the ingredients of much darker, grimier dance music subcultures" and noted that it "has already turned out some of the smartest dumb music in years".[4] Rick Pearson of the Evening Standard called it "thrilling, original and utterly of the moment" and stated that "dance music has discovered a new star".[14] Alex Macpherson from FACT noted that Katy B is doing "something that literally no one else is at the moment: personality-driven music with a distinctive feminine voice that’s deeply rooted in underground scenes, but whose blithe lack of concern for their phallocentrism erodes the self-imposed boundaries they set up" and called On a Mission "a significant landmark album for both British dance and British pop".[2] Gavin Martin of the Daily Mirror wrote that Brien "effortlessly glides through a template that mixes dubstep, garage, house and grime on this appealing, user-friendly debut",[5] while Robert Copsey from Digital Spy called the album "a collection of well-groomed songs loaded with earworm hooks, rich melodies and on-point lyrics that focus on music itself rather than homing in on a particular trend".[6] Thomas H. Green of The Daily Telegraph described it as "efficient, likeable, club-friendly pop, with the house numbers less memorable than the drum and bass leanings".[22] On Tuesday 19 July it had been announced that the album was one of the nominees for the 2011 Mercury Prize.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Power on Me" | Katy B & Geeneus | Geeneus | 4:21 |
| 2. | "Katy on a Mission" | Katy B, Benga & Geeneus | Benga | 4:11 |
| 3. | "Why You Always Here" | Katy B & Geeneus | Geeneus | 5:33 |
| 4. | "Witches' Brew" | Katy B, Zinc, Geeneus & Sam Frank | Zinc | 3:20 |
| 5. | "Movement" | Katy B & Zinc | Zinc | 2:41 |
| 6. | "Go Away" | Katy B, Geeneus & Magnetic Man | Geeneus | 3:35 |
| 7. | "Disappear" | Katy B & Geeneus | Geeneus | 3:38 |
| 8. | "Broken Record" | Katy B, Geeneus & Zinc | Geeneus & Zinc | 3:19 |
| 9. | "Lights On" (featuring Ms. Dynamite) | Katy B, Geeneus & Ms. Dynamite | Geeneus | 3:28 |
| 10. | "Easy Please Me" | Katy B & Magnetic Man | Magnetic Man | 3:56 |
| 11. | "Perfect Stranger" (with Magnetic Man) | Katy B & Magnetic Man | Magnetic Man | 3:13 |
| 12. | "Hard to Get" | Katy B, Geeneus & Zinc | Geeneus & Zinc | 6:53 |
| 13. | "Water" (Bonus hidden track) | Katy B & Geeneus | Geeneus | 3:14 |
| iTunes Bonus Tracks | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length | |||||
| 14. | "Something New" | Katy B & Zinc | 3:32 | ||||||
| 15. | "Katy on a Mission" (music video) | Benga | 3:15 | ||||||
| Charts (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgium (Flanders)[26] | 10 |
| Belgium (Wallonia)[27] | 70 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[28] | 66 |
| Polish Albums Chart[29] | 68 |
| Scottish Albums Chart[30] | 4 |
| UK Albums Chart[31] | 2 |
| UK Download Chart[32] | 2 |
| UK Dance Chart[33] | 1 |
| Chart (2011) | Position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[34] | 83 |
| Region | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom[35] | 1 April 2011 | Rinse FM / Columbia Records |
| United States[36] | 13 September 2011 | Columbia Records |
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