I hear Hogwarts needs a new potions mistress. Interested, Katy?

[Video][Website]
[6.00]

Brad Shoup: I’m pro-witches, and I theoretically support the career of dubstep’s JoJo, but this track only achieves levitation in the freestyled chorus. Also I’m a little nervous that someone’s remaking Bell, Book and Candle and no one told me.
[5]

Jonathan Bradley: Nice, but it lacks — if you’ll excuse me — the magic that made her previous singles truly potent. The super-suction synths on the chorus and the dreamy harmonies on the verse combine to produce polished and proficient dance pop, but a song called “Witches Brew” should bubble with some darker undercurrents.
[7]

Alfred Soto: I know she likes dubstep but I get nothing of the genre’s twitchiness from her vocal or this track: it’s the aural equivalent of an ooze that keeps dripping off a table, unrelentingly. Take heed you singers who like endless choruses.
[2]

Michaela Drapes: The burbling, bubbling sequencer can’t be denied; I’ll allow this break beat because it’s mixed in nicely (what else would you expect from Zinc, though?) I barely don’t remember this from listening to Katy B’s album a few months back, but clearly it’s got better legs as a single, thanks mostly to that killer, golden earworm of a chorus.
[8]

Ian Mathers: This is one of those songs that simultaneously feels like there’s no chorus and like the whole thing is one big chorus — maybe it’s the way the video-game beeps and bloops morph throughout the song, or the fact that what I think is the actual chorus is distinguished more by a slightly different beat than anything else (which says more about the hookiness of the verses than any deficiency in the chorus). I figured this for a solid album track on my first listen, but it’s proving to be subtly addicting. Form following (ostensible) function.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: I’m fairly sure you could’ve made computerized frippery that sounds identical to “Witches Brew” with an old PC toy, possibly Kid Pix Studio, as you mouse and loop pretty doodles across the screen. Use enough tools and you’ve reproduced the whole track — fun! Problem is, “Witches Brew” is supposed to be sinuous, a setting for Katy to seduce someone. It is impossible to seduce anyone while playing Kid Pix Studio.
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: I’m still missing the key ingredient to finding Katy B interesting, I think. Nice voice, zooming production, but in both lyrics and personality a blank, no center to make the flourishes hold. I keep listening, sure I must be wrong and everyone else right, but she keeps receding into the distance, more opaque with every listen.
[6]