Peter Holslin rocks a Civic with 20-inch rims
Some guys might feel self-conscious bumping the glossiest dance-pop bangers in the car while driving city streets with the windows down. Not me, though. Not when Katy B is on the stereo. A vision of nightclub finesse in a digital blue dress, the 24-year-old English singer offers everything I could hope for on her new album, Little Red. There are catchy melodies, but also rhythmic complexity. There’s self-reflection, but also primal urge. There’s confidence, but also grace. How can a man not appreciate such pop refinement?
Though the album isn’t 100% perfect, Little Red does just what you’d want in dance-pop: strike a balance between dancefloor immediacy and deeper emotion. Working with a range of producers and songwriters—including old pal Geeneus, head of Rinse FM, who co-produced her previous album, 2011’s On a Mission—Katy sometimes finds herself confronting her fears head-on, as in the glorious synth opus “Crying for No Reason.” But she isn’t above slipping away for some synth-induced romance, either, as she does in the foggy fantasy-makeout tune “Blue Sapphire.”
Such give-and-take is central to the album, but it isn’t the only source of tension. Both sonically and rhythmically, the production on Little Red is stellar, its grooves embedded with an incredible sense of friction. For all the sparks that fly between Katy and a mysterious courtier in “I Like You,” the real flirting is going on between George FitzGerald’s bass and beats—as the former dances about in syncopated movements, the latter gives chase with a four-to-the-floor tech-house stomp. Inevitably, the two finally come together in an ecstatic groove that’s both stupidly simple and sexy as hell.
I’m tempted to compare Katy B to the other Katy, simply because they spell their names the same way. But if Katy B reminds me of any pop singer of the moment, it’s Robyn. Like that badass fembot from Stockholm, Katy seems completely in control of what she’s doing. Witness the way she tackles the obstacle course of off-kilter synth twinkles and syncopated dancehall kicks on “Tumbling Down”: where another singer might simply become the passenger to the beat, she takes charge with an effortless, sultry melody that has all the rich sweetness of pure Vermont maple syrup.
Granted, Robyn is 10 years older, and she’s been around the industry a lot longer. Her lyrics are also more specific and piercing, where some of Katy’s on Little Red revolve around typical pop universals. (“All My Lovin,’” in particular, features more than a few lyrical clichés.) But give Katy credit—she’s only getting started, she’s only got two albums out, and already she has a number of stellar songs to her name.
Chief among them is “5 AM,” one of the singles off Little Red, and easily the best pop song I’ve heard so far this year. Miraculously, even though it’s full of synapse-firing movement, it exudes a muscle-relaxing chill—best exemplified in the way the word “va-li-um” rolls right off of Katy’s tongue. Yep, something tells me I’m gonna be rocking this album in my car for years to come. If anybody asks me what I’m listening to, I’ll just be like, “Shit, man, you don’t know?”
