Melua is memorable and melodic (Call Off The Search - Katie Melua)

Name: duskmaiden

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Product:	Call Off The Search - Katie Melua
Date:	13/03/04 (1189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fantastic voice, crawling Up the Hill

Disadvantages: faraway Voice

Terry Wogan should rebel against Radio 2?s play list more often as he has discovered a brilliant new young talent to rival one of my favourite female singers Norah Jones. When the king of Eurovision and waffling on in a good way at breakfast me played Closest Thing to Crazy by Katie Melua I sat up and took note. I loved the song and also her voice who I actually initially mistook for Cerys Matthews (the wailing welsh bird that used to be in Catatonia) in one of her mellower prettier songs. However on listening to the album ?Call off the Search? that I bought a few weeks ago comparisons should be made with the aforementioned Norah Jones. Like Ms Jones she is young being only 19, very talented, sings laid back late night jazz and blues, plays guitar and instruments and has started to write some of her own songs. She is also quite attractive with her raven curls and rock chick outfits which are a bit at odds with the blues and jazz she sings.

So who is Katie Melua?

She is Georgian (as in the former USSR not thaw southern American state) by birth but has lived in Moscow, Belfast and London. She studied at the prestigious Brit school for young performers but she is certainly no stage school brat. Her debut single Closest Thing to Crazy made the top 10 at the end of 2004 and her album Call of the Search knocked Dido off the top of the album charts and is still there now. Not bad at all for a 19 year old??

What is the music like??

Katie Melua is not one for the teenyboppers and pop fans. Her muic is more sophisticated being a blend of jazz, soul, blues and folk. Melua credits Ella Fitzgerald Eva Cassidy and Queen as influences. Her music is generally sultry and laid back. The album is ideal for chilling out or seducing your partner!!


1 Call of the search

The album starts of with the title track. Call off the Search is an excellent song to begin the album. This song is about fining the love of your life and his not
needing to search for anyone else. Katie on this track is at her blueiest best. Her vocal almost sounds like a forties jazz singer not a 21syt century girl barley out of her teens as it sparkles with sheer class. The melody is slow and sophisticated with trumpets and a piano tinkling in the background. This is a perfect late night song.


Crawling up the hill

This has to be one of the highlights of this album for me. It is an upbeat jazzy number with an infectious up-tempo slightly jazzy tune with funky guitar solos and trumpets. The vocal is lively and enjoyable. It really is a catchy song. The reason I love this song is because I identify with the subject matte as it deals with. It deals with the mundane and the ordinary things we have to do to get by whilst we are reaching for our goals and ambitions. The song is about a girl working in an office in London whilst dreaming of becoming a blues singer. This is my exact situation but I am opening post in Manchester whilst I am dreaming of a career in museum work

Every morning (a)bout half past eight,
My Mummer wakes me says,
"Don¹t be late",
Get to the office, tryin' to concentrate,
My life is just a slow train crawling up a hill.

So I stop one day to figure it out,
I'll quit my job without a shadow of a doubt,
To sing the blues that I know about,

3 Closing Thing to crazy

This was the Katie?s debut single and the song that brought her to the nation?s conscienceless. It t is another slower ballad which is more Middle of the road than Jazz or blues. You can defiantly see the Eva Cassidy influence here. However on this song she sounds a lot like Cerys Matthews as her voice is soft, lilting and expressive. The song is about the feeling you get when you are first in love and fall head over heels with someone. It is about the giddy feelings and compares it to first love when you are a teenager. I love the chorus

This
is the closest thing to crazy I have ever been
Feeling twenty-two, acting seventeen,

A wonderful song which stands head and shoulders above most of the mindless pap in the charts

4 My Aphrodisiac is you

We get all sexy and seductive with another of my favourites on the album. It is the closest song on the album to Turn Me by Norah Jones. The subject of My Aphrodisiac is you is obvious as Katie dismisses all sorts of strange remedies as the only thing she needs is her lover.

Some people like
To read the karma sutra first,
But I don't need it
I think if I should read it
I'd be worse;

I love the tempo of this song. It is Rhythm and Blues in the true sense of the word unlike what is peddled as R and B. There is a lovely groovy clarinet in the background alongside an old homny tonk plinky plonky piano. This song is certainly one to play to your lover if you want a sensual erotic night.

5 Learning the Blues

Yes Miss Melua you certainly are. This is another very laid back down beat late night number accompanied by a gently piano. The song is about the melancholy of the loss of a lover which is an essential for being able to sing the blues properly. The song is quite gentle and very sultry as is Katie?s elegant vocal.


6 Blame it on the Moon

The moon is a suitable subject for a blues song, think blue moon and Norah Jones?s Shoot the Moon. This image goes back to Shakespearian times when Romeo or Juliet (I can not remember) warned the other not to swear on the constantly changing moon. The song is about a girl falling in love pretty quickly without and finding herself too deep into a relationship too quickly. This song has a very gentle accompaniment to show of the haunting, touching vocal.

7 Belfast (Penguins and Cats)

This is where we see Katie?s talent as a song writer emerging. The song seems to be about her revisiting her old home of Belfas
t as it talks about Walked on Broadway,
Going up to falls, which assume is the Falls Road. I?m not sure what being divided by penguins and cats? Is this a metaphor for Belfast?s divided communities? Only the author can tell is this. Music wise it is a very simple and beautiful melody that lets the vocal stand out and take centre stage.

.

8 I think it s going to rain today

What a good title for a songstress who is based in Britain!! Joking aside this is a soulful piano and strings based song. The lyrics are very melancholic with stark images and the words lonely repeated to give it a heavy atmosphere to it. . The highlight for me is the beautiful strings in the background

9 Mocking Bird Sing

This is the only cover in this album. The song is by Randy Newman originally. I actually thought it was a traditional song because of the lyrics and the melody. On this song we have Katie doing rootsy folk and it is just as much as a delight as her jazz and blues songs. I liked this song to begin with as it has whimsical lyrics but Katie has added an extra dimension with her great vocals

We are getting to the end of the album and also the weaker tracks. However there are no terrible songs you have to skip as they are almost unmistakable. All the songs are good. It is just the first half produced crackers such as Slow Train Crawling up the Hill and My Aphrodisiac is you I feel the last few songs are pretty unmemorable and blend into each other.

. It is just that the early

10 Tiger in the night

This is a more an Eva Cassidy inspired song and one of my less favourite songs on the album. I just feel it is very nicely sung but just does not inspire me but I am sure it is the type of thing Celine Dion fans would love.

11 Faraway Voice

This song is dedicated to Katie?s heroine Eva Cassidy and is the second song that Katie wrote n this album. I know this is a really personal song to Kat
ie but I really do not rate it compared to a lot of the others on the album. I really am not sure about her high notes and what is it with the woos. They are a bit painful to listen to. This is just so middle of the road. Katie, do not turn into one of those type of singers. We have enough of them
12Lilac Wine


Katie is back on form with the last track of the album. This one is a grower on me. It is a totally different sound to all the other songs. How talented is this girl. Lilac wine is a very dramatic, slightly melancholic song that really stretches Katie?s voice without resorting to Mariah Carey style vocal gymnastics. At first I find the vocal soft, haunting and I think Kate Bush. I also think Russia for some reason. Maybe I am thinking of gloomy Russian folk songs. Then she blossoms into a full divas voice. Think Cerys Matthews at her best or perhaps even Marlene Dietrich. The song is about loss and remembrance of a former lover and is just spellbinding. It is a fitting end to an almost magical album.

So does this album justify the numerous Norah Jones comparisons??

Yes and no. yes Katie is talented, sultry with plenty of soul in her body and yes she does jazz and blues wonderfully. She might be the British Norah Jones but she is no wannabee. She also has a slightly different voice. Her voice is less husky than Norah?s but just as beautiful and compelling. With songs as classic as Closest thing to Crazy, My Aphrodisiac is You and Slow Train Crawling Up the Hill Katie Melua should be recognised in her own right as the talent she is not the new anybody. She is so versatile. Why can?t we have more of this calibre of music and less of the manufactured Barbie dolls in the charts? My only concern is her future direction. We want more of the jazz, blues and dramatic songs and less of the Eva Cassidy inspired ballads which are the low point of the album. I?d love to see Katie Melua develop into one of Britain?s top selling, most resp
ected female artists.

I bought his album on Amazon for a very reasonable £8.99 but now it is even cheaper at £8.49

It is a shme there is not a four and a half rating as it is not quite excellent but better than good due to a couple of tracks spoiling a great album

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