Is there anyone who's got it so continuously right as Katy B this year? Probably not. Witches Brew is the sixth single from her debut album yet feels like it could just as easily lead a whole campaign - it's that good.
Like its predecessor Easy Please Me, Witches Brew again sees Katy at the more poppy end of the spectrum - the enticing, seductive 'Come with me, I'll make you feel so good...' chorus is simply irresistible, a promise of untold pleasure and excitement.
As her recent Mercury nomination proves, this year arguably belongs to Katy B. Both critically and commercially loved - she strides that delicate fine line between musical worlds, latching on to brilliant pop hooks and club-ready dance beats with equal ease.
She is the chameleon of her art, morphing and redefining herself constantly; even within songs themselves. With its bleepy, GameBoy synths and barrels of punchy attitude to rival the likes of Jessie J and Cher Lloyd, Katy B is the ultimate promising young star for the future.
If there's anyone that deserves that Mercury prize, it's her.
In my review of Katy B's album last week I picked out Easy Please Me as one of the definite highlights of the record. In many ways, its style isn't really that representative of the album as a whole, it's one of the most up-tempo tracks on there, a far cry from the more chilled, laid-back electronica that suffuses so much of it.
The track sees Katy in full-on pop mode, all the sultriness and airy-superiority that made Broken Record and Lights On so good is here in copious amounts. As Katy herself sings, 'one thing I love is confidence', and she has buckets of it herself. Easy Please Me is a real man-eating tale of independence - Katy won't be won over by the first guy to buy her a drink, nope, she sets her standards far higher than that.
In the tinny synths and hushed backing vocals, we have a track that stands on its own two feet; propped up by the sheer attitude and effervescence of Katy's voice. She's in command here, and doesn't let you forget it.
And yes, it does definitely sound like Kylie's Red Blooded Woman.
On A Mission is fundamentallya pop record at heart, but it's testament to Katy B's talent and ingenuity that her debut LP feels just at home on the dancefloor. It manages to span that treacherous borderline between the two, doing so in a manner that is bursting with inventive melody and songwriting verve.
The real wonder is that while this album already contains four hit singles, it feels like you could easily squeeze another three or four from it - the tracks are of such a good quality. Consistency is the name of the game here and katy knows it - there's an amazing confidence to her that buzzes around, transfusing through into you - you want to leap up and join her on the dancefloor too, 'sinking into the tune' as she sings on Katy On A Mission.
Meanwhile, Witches Brew sees the album at its most poppy with its refrain of 'come with me, I'll make you feel so good'. Empowered and forceful it blasts away any negativity and melancholy, replacing it with that singular bliss that falls over you when you're in that perfect moment of enjoying all the Good Times life has to offer. It is captured again in the relentless, pulsing buzz of Broken Record with its enchanting, hypnotic stream of layered vocals.
Easy Please Me is set to become the next single - and the track reminds me of Kylie Minogue's brief dabble into R&B; Red Blooded Woman. With an insanely catchy hook, it's this track perhaps that catches the power of Katy's vocals at their best; especially in the ad-libs in the last minute of the song.
We feel as if with each song we explore a different night out in Katy's company, a different aspect of her life. And with every chorus, every verse, we feel as if we're sharing in that story, adding it into our own lives and relating to what she tells us. For the duration of the album, she is our trusted confidant, our close friend.
You have to marvel at the sheer intricacy off the beats on offer - synths collide and fizz in the background - a hot bed of almost electric intensity that Katy wraps around her finger and directs at the listener. Her vocals are subtle, hushed, sultry - yet what really makes this album come into its own is the sheer force of personality that comes across, all wrapped up in her incredibly soulful voice.
The album comes to a chilled end with the jazzy keyboard riffs of Hard To Get, the song featuring a touching outro where Katy thanks all the people that helped contribute to the record. It could come across as cheesy, but here you feel Katy's earned the right to indulge - she has just treated us to one hell of an amazing album after all. This is summer music through and through; dripping with the radiance, jabs of brass injecting the track with a real vitality. So often albums fall flat by their end, the final track being a throwaway cut tacked on at the end - but Hard To Get ranks up there with the best of the album, a fitting finale to a stunning record.
