Film Review

04 July 2009 21:31 BST

Katie Melua: Pictures

Dramatico, out October 1st.

In a nutshell…

In Katie's own words: Diverse. Emotional. Thoughtful. Exciting. Darker.

What's it all about?

Pictures is a thematic album full of cinematic references - touching upon old-school Hollywood, horror and cowboy movies. But there's more to the album's 12 songs and its first single If You Were a Sailboat is – so typically, beautifully Katie – that it sets the scene for another public love affair similar to that what was witnessed with Closest Thing to Crazy.

Who's it by

Katie Melua was born in Georgia, moved to Belfast as a child and then lived in Surrey. It was as a student at the BRIT School for the Performing Arts in London that music producer Mike Batt spotted her and propelled the singer to stardom at the age of 19 with the debut album Call off the Search in 2003.

The album, featuring Closest Thing to Crazy, sold 1.8 million copies within five months of its release. Two years later this success was followed up with Piece by Piece, which has reached platinum status four times over.

Katie, now 23, is also a Guinness World Record holder for performing the deepest underwater concert, playing 303 metres below sea level on an oil rig in the North Sea in October last year.

As an example…

"Missing the train every morning at 8:52/Sipping coffee from the same cup as you/The sharing of secrets we thought no one else knew/That's what I miss about you/The way I only doubted myself when I was with you/Like I was a fool for expecting something from life too/Your skill of putting me down in-front of everyone we knew/That's what I don’t miss about you."

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Unlikely. Fans would argue that Katie is due this type of recognition, but the Grammys have so far failed to acknowledge her work. Even on home soil, Katie lost out to KT Tunstall in the 2006 Brit Awards for best British female solo artist.

What the others say

"Pictures builds upon Katie's successes as one of Britain's finest female artists and shows her experimenting and growing as a songwriter extraordinaire." - CD Universe

"This jazzy, smoky sound formula is ever present again and to be honest, the arrangements are not all bad. It's the half hearted, take the money and run performance which drives you the closest thing to crazy." - Glenn Meads, Manchester Evening News

So is it any good?

Katie Melua is a bit like Marmite: You either love her sound or feel the need to lay into it. For Katie fans, Pictures will be everything they expected and more. The haters are likely to find it overly sentimental and sweet.

But whichever way of the fence you are, you will have to admit that Pictures brings a new element of Katie the artist to the fore. Scary Films has the potential to appeal to non-fans, as does spaghetti western tune Dirty Dance and perhaps even Ghost Town, with its unexpected reggae vibe.

The people who will consider buying this album are, however, likely to be looking for lyrics about love and longing - and Pictures does not disappoint. The first single, If You Were a Sailboat, is a beautifully packaged song about - you guessed it - love, as is If the Lights Go Out.

Emotional turmoil is the theme of what is tipped to be the next single, Perfect Circle, but hopeless romantics will particularly love the bittersweet What I Miss About You.

Katie herself points out that Pictures is "darker" than her first two albums and also that it features a lot more of her own input. Don't expect significantly darker, but there is a hint of things to come now that Katie is branching out on her own after her three-album collaboration with Mike Batt.

The song What It Says on the Tin signifies Pictures in a sense: it's essentially the sweet and slightly predictable Katie that is loved by her legions of fans. But it's the edgy suggestion of things to come that sometimes slips through on Pictures which is what we're really excited about.

7 /10



Karen Moller

To read our interview with Katie click here

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