by Mikey (Gillingham, Kent, UK) - Each week I preview an album which I think deserves a listen to and if it's worth to buy, I will cater for all tastes of music from R'n'B to Rock, Hip hop and Pop.
Katie Melua - Call Of The Search
Release Date: 3 November 2003
Katie Melua is an inspirational to the music industry she is a homegrown young girl with a beautiful talent and a voice to match, she brings a new dimension to her music with a mix of bluesy, jazzy sounds. The album is riding high at this precise moment notching her first No.1 album, knocking Dido in the process, and hopefully many more to come from this sweet girl called Katie Melua. Given time overseas success will churn her dreams to became one successful solo artist for many years to come, America awaits!
The "English" music scene has unearthed another gem in the form of Katie Melua, even if she was born by the Black Sea in Georgia (former USSR), with her dad, Alex, a heart surgeon and mum Tamara, a nurse, moved to Belfast when she was nine. She got her big break at a school talent show, her teacher did not think to include her, but she put herself forward anyway and record producer Mike Batt was watching the show (creator of The Wombles). In fact Mike, was so impressed with Katie's cool melodic voice that he signed her up to his record label, Dramatico, while she was still at school.
Five years later she moved to Sutton, in Surrey with her family. A year later Katie won her first talent competition on ITV's children's television programme 'Mad For It' - singing Mariah Carey's hit 'Without You'. At 16 she joined the Brit School for Performing Arts in Croydon, Surrey. Another asset to her multi-talents is the ability to write her own songs to express herself. Katie's music inspirations are Queen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Irish folk and Indian music.
As winter gets more and more of a hold, you need an album that you can listen to while shut away in your nice warm house by your nice hot fire. This could be it. You could say this is the sleeper album of the last few months.
Over the next few months you will hear a lot more about Katie Melua, especially if you listen to Radio 2, where they are pushing her album in the same way that helped Norah Jones and Eva Cassidy to enter the mainstream. The music industry is crying out for young artists like Katie, but the music genre of jazz and blues is not really pigeonholed.
One of the continually occurring observations will be her age. She has just turned 19 and there is no doubt that she sings with maturity far beyond her young age. In fact, even though the songs are well constructed and the covers chosen well, it is Katie Melua's voice that carries this album and subsequently elevates it from an ordinary jazz / blues homage to one of the finest d�but releases by such a young singer for some time. This is a young women singing songs for adults.
Obviously she is going to be compared to Norah Jones, which is no bad thing. They both portray similar moods, and hopefully manage to cross the barriers of blues and jazz into the more lucrative pop market. Norah Jones has a huskier, more distinct voice. Katie has more range. She has not sung in enough smoke-filled bars to sound as deep as Dinah Washington, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald or any of the other legends of the blues. Instead it is sweeter, lighter jazz than dark blues. Her love for and a similarity to Eva Cassidy can be heard on 'Faraway Voice' and her voice carries the naivety of youth on 'Learnin' The Blues', a song I think she will perform 10 times better five years down the track.
Her voice is like a chameleon. It drops and rises, bends the notes like a blues guitar player and adds little trills and whistles in all the right places. It was made for songs like these, and will only get better with maturity and time.
The main accompaniment is acoustic guitar, at its Chicago blues best on 'Mockingbird', and piano, as in the boogie-woogie opening to 'My Aphrodisiac Is You'. The instrumentation is never overpowering but subtle and delicate, and only gets loud and more aggressive when it is needed. Katie plays the guitar herself on some of the tracks, yet another arrow in her multi-talented arsenal. 'Belfast' is about her hometown, where she was raised, as a child, the lyrics on the song reflect her identity. Her next single to be lifted of the album is 'Call Of The Search' around March, of this year.
'The Closest Thing To Crazy', the first single, is not actually the strongest track on the album. That honour goes to 'Crawling Up A Hill', a visual and sonic treasure chest that demonstrates all that is good about this album and this singer.
If I have to reflect on this album as a whole, alongside Norah Jones, Eva Cassidy and Carina Round, Katie Melua is a real young talent who deserves the respect that she gives to her music. My search is over; it's just a shame that a lot of people won't search out Katie Melua. That's their loss. Don't let it be yours. The perfect slice of jazzy, blues album, to add to your endearing growing record collection. Watch out Dido! Katie is after your crown!
9/10
Tracklisting
1. Call Of The Search
2. Crawling Up A Hill
3. The Closest Thing To Heaven
4. My Aphrodisiac Is You
5. Learnin' The Blues
6. Blame It On The Moon
7. Belfast
8. I Thing Its Going To Rain Today
9. Mockingbird
10. Tiger In The Night
11. Faraway Voice
12. Lilac White
