Little Red – My Favourite Album of 2014

What makes a favourite album of any year? While I may needlessly destroy brain cells wrestling with what is “best”, there are a couple of easy criteria for me to determine a favourite. One criterion for “favourite” is what album’s songs randomly gave me the most earworms. Another is The Lord Have Mercy Test. This test is how many times I find myself saying, “Lord Have Mercy!” while listening to an album. The waving of gospel-hands and making of stank faces during this test add bonus points.

The album that met these criteria most often in 2014 was Little Red by London singer and songwriter Kathleen Anne Brien, better known as Katy B. While this album was born in London’s dance clubs, if Bill Hader’s infamous SNL character Stefon were to review this album, he’d say, “This album has everything – dubstep, R&B, funk, house, dance pop and ballads.”

Little Red is a perfect example of what’s happening in the U.K. music scene where the lines between musical genres no longer exist and the music becomes an amalgamation of styles. On this album, sometimes the shift of genres happens between songs but more often than not, the shifts occur seamlessly within the songs themselves. It’s a remarkable work of production not to mention the vocal chops necessary to keep up.

There are no weak points on this album. From the beginning to the end of the deluxe version’s 17 songs, there is a constant I-don’t-ever-want-this-to-stop groove that is occasionally punctuated by high-intensity moments. And those high moments come in a variety of ways. After the dance party gets started with two of my Lord Have Mercy! favorites 5 AM and Aliyah, along comes my favourite on the album, the emotional, full-body goosebumps ballad Crying for No Reason[1]. And then Katy gets us moving again with I Like You and its classic disco/house beat. Other personal highlights are the dark, dubstep-y All My Lovin’; Emotions; the ballad Still; and the deluxe version’s closers Wicked Love and Sky’s the Limit.

It’s rare that beat-driven music made for the dance clubs can move your emotions as well as your body. With Katy B’s amazing vocals set against a backdrop of the latest beats from London’s dance scene, Little Red does just that. Lord Have Mercy!!

Watch the Crying For No Reason video below (and when it’s finished, move your mouse over the link for the 5 AM video and give it a click):

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[1] About which one reviewer called it, “The best ballad we’ve heard in ages . . . a stunning breakstep ballad about having a weepy moment for no particular reason . . . it really is one of the best ballads we’ve heard in quite some time. (Robert Copsey, digitalspy.com)

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