Product Description

The Georgia-born singer songwriter's third studio album follows 2005's quadruple platinum 'Piece By Piece.' Produced byMike Batt (Vanessa Mae, The Wombles), the record has been described as the third part of a trilogy of Melua albums, andremains faithful to the qualities that made her first two albums so successful. 'Pictures' is a collection of timeless jazz tinged pop ballads which further cement Melua's position as one of the world's most gifted artists.

Track Listing

1. Mary Pickford (Used To Eat Roses)
2. All In My Head
3. If The Lights Go Out
4. What I Miss About You
5. Spellbound
6. What It Says On The Tin
7. Scary Films
8. Perfect Circle
9. Ghost Town
10. If You Were A Sailboat
11. Dirty Dice
12. In My Secret Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #550 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Reviews

Those who were irked last time around by Katie Melua's unsubstantiated claims that there are, and I quote, "nine million bicycles in Beijing" and that indeed "that's a fact, it's a thing we can't deny"--when at best it can be no more than an exaggerated guesstimate and at worst just plain made up--will be pleased to learn that there are no comparable aspersions on new album Pictures. There may still be instances when things just don't seem to make much sense at all, and metaphors can tire in her company, though set alongside a trademark melting lullaby such moments don't really tend to linger. Pictures is an album that, while essentially doing only what it should and little more, also begins to signal that her potential could yet be realised. Where she has always had the silk-lined voice of a fairy admiring her beauty in a dew-drop, and her albums of modern mainstream jazz have become naturally affiliated with bubble baths by candlelight, or large glasses of red wine sipped slowly, or both, this is where she starts exhibiting signs of maturity. On "What I Miss About You", "Spellbound" and "Perfect Circle" she sounds older, more contemplative, almost commanding, and genuinely soulful. Rising above the generic parapet she makes small steps towards an identity of her own. Perhaps more than just a pretty voice after all. --James Berry

Customer Reviews

All I want is you, and your guitar.
...and that's all I have to say really. When are we going to have a whole album of just you singing solo, along with your guitar, and nothing more? So long as the recording quality is as good as on your other albums, that's all. Time to move on Katie. Your thank you in the sleeve of pictures, to the band and to Mike, should also be your farewell to them. Your voice needs no band or producer or any one writing songs for it. I know what I'd like to hear from you, I've heard it, I've seen it, and that's just you singing alone with your guitar, thats when you are at your best. This album...good, but nothing new, and nothing here for you to sing with real feeling or emotion.

We only listened to it once
We have the first three albums that the artist has produced. We attended one of her concerts after the second album came out. We have listened to this album only once; we find it boring. The artist's vocal ability is rather limited, with too much breathiness and 'accidental' chromatic notes. The lyrics continue to err on pretention, condescension and self-righteous opinion. At the concert we attended, for example, the artist said of a cover something to the effect of 'I like this song because it is well written' and I thought 'well, that's your opinion - but let us experience and evaluate it for ourselves; please don't patronise us'.

Superb talent and vocal range.
Listening to Pictures made me grateful that I had discovered an outstanding artist who is note perfect and can sing power ballads and blues harmonies. Quickly she personalises Mike Batts words and is a more than capable songwriters.