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Katie Melua: Piece by Piece

December 28th, 2005

Katie staring pensively

Of all places it was on Sunday AM (a politics show hosted by Andrew Marr) that I first saw Katie Melua. Actually before I continue, if you click on that link then you can watch the most recent episode if you are so inclined–no Melua though–just politics. Well it was certainly a memorable moment: I found it so funny that two minutes before she came on they were having a heated argument, then they just sat there quietly listening to her singing “Closest thing to Crazy” playing fingerpick on her acoustic. The two events were perfectly juxtaposed. Really, it was then that I thought “I must have her album!”

Piece by Piece is among the best I’ve heard of 2005, even though I do have a predisposition towards liking acoustic guitar. The album is bluesy, laid back and great to chill to. Though to this point I think you’re either going to love her cooing voice, or feel total apathy toward it.

She wrote five of the songs on her album, the rest being covers or penned by the guitarist Mike Batt. So that’s not bad either. My over-analysis is however somewhat annoyed with the lyrics of her last song “I Do Believe In Love”: “They say we never landed on the moon, / There’s no wind there, they assume.” Well, you don’t have to assume it; there isn’t any wind on the moon. It’s annoying because the lyrics could easily be fixed by adding a semi-colon: “There’s no wind there; they assume.” At a push this can be argued to be correct, as it sounds like “they” are assuming that we didn’t land on the moon because of the presence of wind. Of course the assumption is nearly fact, but until they actually have concrete proof, it would nevertheless still be an assumption; albeit a very strong one.

Anyway, here’s the nice finger-pick start from “Just Like Heaven”:

  1. justlikeheaven.mp3. Catch it instead on Youtube

Filed under: Music by Alex at 5:17 pm | Trackback

2 Responses to “Katie Melua: Piece by Piece”

  1. Pascal Klein Says:
    December 29th, 2005 at 10:49 am

    Usually I’m not overly keen on purchasing music recommended to me, but this might warrant an exception. Doesn’t seem like an artist that is widely mainstream so I’m hoping the pricing isn’t too extreme, but I guess it has to be popular enough to make it to the shores of Australia… :)

    And because I can’t resist it: *cough*the RIAA!*cough*

    Cheers,
    Pascal

  2. Alex Says:
    December 29th, 2005 at 11:13 am

    I’m afraid that Alex can no longer reply to comments. He has been deported and detained for an unspecfied period of time.

    I’m sorry but small 32kbps clips are not acceptable.

    ;)