Wait, I’m confused. Are the people unbalanced or drunk, or made of dots?

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[7.09]

Brad Shoup: FUCK YEAH FREESTYLE
[8]

Jer Fairall: Fooling me into thinking I’m about to hear “Train In Vain” played on crackly vinyl is decent way to begin a song, just as mixing in some late 80’s house-style samples is a good way to keep me listening. Who knows, I might even forgive what is essentially a low-key rewrite of that old Delerium/Sarah McLachlan thing in the process.
[6]

John Seroff: If we’re all in for five years of 90’s revivalism, I guess we damn well better get our kicks where we can. This is a lovely place to start; even if it lacks something of a proper backbone, the gossamer vocals and fairy dust effects tat the dubstep edges neatly into lace. I imagine one of the inevitable flood of remixes will provide a vertebral transplant; could someone please bump this with a comment when they find the DJ I’m looking for?
[7]

Alex Ostroff: Don’t let the breakbeat trick you into expecting an explosion. Even the wub-wub-wub breakdown is appropriately muted to match the haze of the vocals and their blurred surroundings. A dance track for that moment in the night when focus evades you and paying attention is a struggle.
[8]

Michaela Drapes: I was totally impressed with Jess Mills’ ability to almost make me believe that it’s 1995! I then got sidetracked, convinced this reminded me of BT and Tori Amos, but that wasn’t right. Until I remembered Leftfield and Toni Halliday — JACKPOT. This isn’t a bad thing, really — Mills is filling in a gaping blank spot in the current lineup of unstoppable ladies of pop. Big shoes to fill, though. Hope she can handle it.
[7]

Iain Mew: My first reaction to this wasn’t that positive, thinking it like a Delilah song in which nothing happened. That doesn’t really make sense though, since it’s not like that much happened as such in “Go”, and a numb tension is what this is surely going for and kind of does well. I actually love the idea of representing a less than clear perception of reality through the language of imperfect data, too. A few listens more and I’ve realised the very specific problem with “Pixelated People”, which is that the chorus melody sounds so much like the verse from “Paparazzi” that mentally I get shunted into that song and the tension gets punctured.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Put together by magpies, and it shows, in a good way — the wobbling bass that dates it to within six months of this writing, but there are subtle touches of house from the 80s (the “hey!” sample, haven’t heard it in years!) and 90s (everything else). Best of all, Mills has a cool 00s girl group vocal style which seems to split the difference between each member of Sugababes 1.0. Katy B is an obvious reference point but she never sounded quite so lovely.
[8]

Erick Bieritz: As with last year’s “Fighting Fire,” Mills sounds restrained, affected, probably intentionally cool to the touch. All of which was arguably permissible as a featured artist doing a hook, but less so when going solo; where’s the personality in “Pixelated People?”
[5]

Sabina Tang: Would work like a dream coloured by the right context — interpolated between instrumentals by a canny DJ, say — but featureless on its own. Listen to Katy B’s album and you’ve spent 50 minutes with a person; that’s not a gift every vocalist needs, but on a self-named release it wouldn’t hurt.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Melancholy and smelling of late autumn like a late nineties Everything But The Girl single, this insinuating example of solid club values is ideal for those of us who’ve worn out the Katy B record.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: A track as chilly/haunting/tense as Mandalay’s “All My Sins,” a vocalist as vulnerable and lost as Katy B at her most relatable, and lyrics that remind me of, oh, everything I’ve thought this year. This is exactly what it sounds like in my head; I’m stunned.
[10]