Product Description

This special edition of Call off the Search features a bonus DVD entitled Onstage and Backstage that includes a rendition of the Cure’s "Love Cats" and Eva Cassidy’s "Anniversary Song".

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Call Off The Search
2. Crawling Up A Hill
3. The Closest Thing To Crazy
4. My Aphrodisiac Is You
5. Learnin' The Blues
6. Blame It On The Moon
7. Belfast
8. I Think It's Going To Rain Today
9. Mockingbird
10. Tiger In The Night
11. Faraway Voice
12. Lilac Wine

Disc 2:

1. Katie Melua "On Stage & Backstage"
2. Faraway Voice
3. I Put A Spell On You
4. The Closest Thing To Crazy
5. My Aphrodisiac Is You
6. I Think It's Going To Rain Today
7. Belfast
8. Mockingbird Song
9. Crawling Up A Hill
10. Call Off The Search
11. Anniversary Song
12. The Making Of "Call Off The Search"
13. Promo Film "The Closest Thing To Crazy"
14. Promo Film "Call Off The Search"
15. Promo Film "Crawling Up A Hill"
16. Promo Film Katie Melua "Starting Out 2003"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30701 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-18
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
This special edition of Call off the Search features a bonus DVD entitled Onstage and Backstage that includes a rendition of the Cure's "Love Cats" and Eva Cassidy's "Anniversary Song".

No doubt 18-year-old Katie Melua has got used to being tagged "the next Norah Jones". After all, the similarities between her debut, Call Off the Search, and Jones's own five-Grammy-winning Come Away with Me more than support the comparison. Both feature precociously graceful and accomplished singers swirling through a haze of sweetly sensual sways--warm, slurred and gloriously lazy--and both certainly belong in the same stress-relieving rack in the easy-listening section. Yet to view Melua as a soundalike is to miss the strength and allure of her own distinctive character. Hers is intimate contemplation spiced with the jazzy drama of an off-Broadway musical. From the flamboyant inflections of her voice and the drowsy orchestra backing "The Closest Thing to Crazy" and "Learnin' the Blues", to the honky-tonk seduction of "My Aphrodisiac Is You", there's a street-smart attitude to her tender swoon that means the image of a dimly lit basement is never far away. With the velvety lounge of "Blame It on the Moon", the dreamy romance of the title track and the devilish blues of "Crawling Up a Hill", it's an eccentric and charming collection that very much stands Melua as a talent in her own right. --Dan Gennoe

Customer Reviews

Not just a pretty face - this is an outstanding debut
What a wonderful talent she is! So young, but very mature, with a great voice, a lovely personality and a head that is not big, but is screwed on correctly. All this can be gleaned from this CD/DVD version of the album.

It is a wonderful assortment of styles and sets her apart from a lot of other singers, although she will be compared to people like Norah Jones. The DVD, highlighting her in concert at Croydon's Fairfield Hall, as well as her talking about the album, band and videos, shows her to be unspoilt and as good live as on record.

She has a great set of songs here, all of them worthy of their place on the album. Bearing in mind Mike Batt was first known for the Wombles (bless them!), half of the album tracks are his compositions.

However, there are other composers' songs here - she does a very good reading of John Mayall's "Crawling Up A Hill", an equally excellent version of James Shelton's "Lilac Wine" .... and there are a couple of her own songs, the impressive "Belfast (Penguins and Cats)" which recall her days in that city and "Faraway Voice", a song dedicated to Eva Cassidy, whom Katie is a big fan of. This last song is nice, but too heavily influenced by Christine McVie's "Songbird" which Cassidy sang so splendidly. There's the classic Randy Newman song "I Think It's Going To Rain Today". However, the arrangement just doesn't do it for me and a the one major disappointment on the album.

Nevertheless, this edition of the album tells you more about Katie Melua and shows her to be very pretty, very talented and with a very fine voice.

Finally, I must say the collection of musicians on the album and the DVD should get a mention - they are all very wonderful. Mike Batt has brought together some serious experience which, no doubt, from whom Miss Melua will learn from. Just one other point about the concert, I wish Mr Batt had not worn that top on stage - it deflects a little from the star attraction!

I'm not certain what Katie's follow-up album should sound like. Perhaps she will need to avoid being too similar to Eva Cassidy (or anyone else, for that matter) - she has a different kind of voice and has enough about her to develop her own style. but I am already looking forward to it.

DVD disappointment
Great music, BUT ... The DVD appears to have some sort of protection on it, and will not play on my computer. I am not happy about this and will be returning the album. Items like this should have a warning about incompatibility with computer playback in the advert, so that we know when not to buy!

Great album from a promising young singer
With a hero like Eva Cassidy then Katie Melua is on solid ground and whilst her voice might not quite reach the heights of Eva's she does have a nice singing voice and a very good style which may be similar to Norah Jones but, in my opinion, is far superior. Most of the album material is strong stuff and the DVD is watchable enough once without ever seeming like a proper concert DVD. I look forward to hear what Katie Melua does next.