Product Description

Katie Melua’s long awaited second album, Piece By Piece, is released nearly two years after the debut of her multi-platinum selling album, Call Off The Search. Piece By Piece demonstrates Katie’s significant growth as an artist, containing a larger percentage of self-penned songs than her first album.

Track Listing

1. Shy Boy
2. Nine Million Bicycles
3. Piece By Piece
4. Halfway Up The Hindu Kush
5. Blues In The Night
6. Spider's Web
7. Blue Shoes
8. On The Road Again
9. Thank You, Stars
10. Just Like Heaven
11. I Cried For You
12. I Do Believe In Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3606 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-26
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Piece By Piece--the second album from Georgia-born chanteuse cum naturalised Brit, Katie Melua, and the successor to her multi-million selling Call Off The Search--begins teasingly with the soft-peddled "come hither" jazz flirtations of "Shy Boy" and concludes with the whispering philosophical torch song resignation of "I Do Believe In Love". The two songs represent opposite ends of the emotional spectrum--sultry and kittenish on the one hand, solitary and ruminative on the other--but they also offer clues that the cutesy, crazy, easy listening Melua of Mike Batt's mentorship may be gradually acceding to the full bloom of self-determined musical adulthood. Melua's songs are often the more fretful and organic, the ghostly title track and the lovely "I Cried for You" are especially recommended, while the bluesier numbers (particularly the cover of the classic "Blues In The Night") seem shoehorned-in gratuitously to match an anticipated demographic. Batt's contributions are melodic, memorably buoyant and childlike, the Chinese-flavoured "Nine Million Bicycles" and the naggingly catchy "Halfway Up The Hindu Kush" are both charming despite their naive, pseudo-ethnicity and currently offer, particularly when compared to something as ponderously wooly as "Spider's Web", a necessary fun counterbalance to Melua's burgeoning compositional skills.

At this stage, Piece By Piece fits together nicely like a little jigsaw puzzle. And even if it didn't, Melua would still sound simply ambrosial singing from a washing machine repair manual. --Kevin Maidment

More to Explore
See more music by Katie Melua	Call off the Search (For Piano, Voice & Guitar)	Call off the Search (CD + DVD)	On The Road Again ~ Katie Melua (DVD)
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CD Description
Sophomore album from Brit success story Melua follows up her million selling 2003 debut 'Call Off The Search'. Once again under the tutelage of her mentor Mike Batt, the precocious 21-year-old has turned in another set of rock standards and epic orchestral pop, and this time has co-written some of the songs herself. Features the single 'Nine Million Bicycles'.

Customer Reviews

Jazzy and Cool
This album is really atmospheric and shows of Katie Melua's skill as a songwriter as well as her hypnotic voice and all-round musical ability. Can anyone actually listen to Nine Million Bicycles without endlessly humming it afterwards? A great mood album perfect for chill-out times.

Beautiful
What a wonderful, wonderful talent. This beautiful girl has a fantastic, dreamy voice and this album really does her justice. The CD/DVD "special edition" gives some extra features, but it is the music, and the voice, that enthralls.

Nine million little bicycles
Fans of bluesy jazz-pop crooners Norah Jones and Joss Stone need to sit up and take notice of Katie Melua. Following up on the success of "Call off the Search" (2003), her much anticipated second album doesn't disappoint, and the twelve gorgeous tracks are guaranteed to mellow you to perfection.

Released since September 2005 in Europe, the Brits have a nine month jump on the USA, but finally this baby has arrived stateside amidst much rejoicing and celebration. Originally from Georgia (the former USSR, not the peachy place) and now settled in the UK, Katie's sultry voice curls around your speakers and nestles comfortably against your eardrums, and even though I'm no fan of either jazz or blues, I thoroughly enjoyed this album from the first listen.

First single "Nine Million Bicycles" is an excitingly different and unforgettable track that starts with a simple truth: "There are nine million bicycles in Beijing / That's a fact / It's a thing we can't deny / Like the fact that I will love you till I die." The music is hauntingly beautiful, perfectly matched by Katie's clean, clear vocals.

Although every track is a winner, there are those that cry out for more attention, namely "Just Like Heaven" from the movie soundtrack of the same name; the social commentary of "Spider's Web"; bouncy opener "Shy Guy" and the passionately performed title track; but let's not forget the cover of the Canned Heat 1960's hit "On the Road Again" and the catchy "Halfway Up the Hindu Kush". "Thank You, Stars" is another perfect song, and to be honest, I should be recommending every song on this album.

"Piece by Piece" is highly recommended for fans of blues, jazz, pop and intelligent yet romantic music, and that's no exaggeration.


Amanda Richards