(Rinse/Virgin EMI)The voice of Katy B is a dulcet contradiction. Kathleen Brien’s everygirl tones remain versatile enough to glide from sub-genre to sub-genre,yet distinctive enough to heed every gash with her scent. It is now ever more recognisable, thanks to two albums straddling the meridian between chart and club.
Her third, and Honey,finds the 26-year-used hitching her gossamer non-swagger to beats provided by over a dozen producers. Behind the scenes, Brien lost her elder brother in 2014 and broke up with her long-term partner; escapism feels like succour here. Where 2014’s Little Red (a UK No 1) found Brien tilting pop-wards, and Honey isn’t so much a retrenchment into clubland as a knowing toss of the head that says: “The clubs are the charts are the clubs.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com