Katie Melua - Secret Symphony (Special Bonus Edition) (2CD) (2012)
Artist: Katie Melua
Title: Secret Symphony (Special Bonus Edition)
Year Of Release: 2012
Label: Dramatico
Genre: Jazz Pop, Vocal Jazz
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue,log)
Total Time: 2:08:23
Total Size: 791 MB
WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist:Title: Secret Symphony (Special Bonus Edition)
Year Of Release: 2012
Label: Dramatico
Genre: Jazz Pop, Vocal Jazz
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue,log)
Total Time: 2:08:23
Total Size: 791 MB
WebSite: Album Preview
CD1
1. Gold in Them Hills [03:29]
2. Better Than a Dream [03:08]
3. The Bit That I Don’t Get [03:11]
4. Moonshine [02:40]
5. Forgetting All My Troubles [03:21]
6. All Over the World [02:54]
7. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out [04:31]
8. The Cry of the Lone Wolf [03:57]
9. Heartstrings [02:51]
10. The Walls of the World [03:23]
11. Secret Symphony [03:49]
The Secret Sessions
12. Feels Like Home [04:48]
13. Too Long at the Fair [03:04]
14. Love Me Tender [03:12]
15. It’s Over [03:18]
CD2
Live In Berlin
1. Secret Symphony [04:03]
2. The Flood [03:58]
3. A Moment of Madness [04:05]
4. If You Were a Sailboat [03:55]
5. Better Than a Dream [03:13]
6. Gold in Them Hills [03:42]
7. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out [04:10]
8. If the Lights Go Out [03:55]
9. Moonshine [02:48]
10. Call Off the Search [03:29]
11. The Bit That I Don’t Get [03:06]
12. Tiger in the Night [03:05]
13. The Walls of the World [03:30]
14. The Cry of the Lone Wolf [04:05]
15. Nine Million Bicycles [03:13]
16. All Over the World [03:00]
17. Heartstrings [02:57]
18. Mockingbird Song [04:08]
19. Two Bare Feet [03:02]
20. The Closest Thing to Crazy [04:28]
21. I Cried for You [03:45]
In addition to the four bonus tracks accompanying the original album, this collection includes a second CD of live tracks recorded in Berlin with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg.
Apropos of nothing, Georgian-born chanteuse Katie Melua surprised everyone with 2010′s The House by hooking up with William Orbit and fusing her familiar brand of coffee table jazz-pop with flourishes of subtle electronica. Perhaps concerned that it failed to top the charts like her previous 3 records, the 27-year-old has reverted to type for its follow-up, Secret Symphony, by returning to mentor Mike Batt, the former Wombles songwriter responsible for her incredible early success.
Melua’s distinctive velvety vocals were always more intriguing than the so-laid-back-they’re-horizontal arrangements which surrounded them, but her last effort was an encouraging sign that she could leave her usual dinner party background music firmly behind. And while Batt’s contributions here — such as the drowsy lounge pop of “The Bit That I Don’t Get,” the steel-laden country balladry of “The Walls of the World,” and the yearning, string-soaked title track — are all typically elegant, demure, and understated affairs, they’re so overly polite and ultimately anodyne, they make Eva Cassidy sound like a death metal act. If any more evidence were needed that Batt appears to be restricting her talents, Melua is far more captivating on the self-penned chamber pop of “Forgetting All My Troubles,” and the four cover versions included, from the soaring torch song reworking of Ron Sexsmith’s “Gold in Them Hills,” to the double bass-led shuffle treatment of Fran Healy’s “Moonshine,” to the straightforward rendition of Françoise Hardy’s sultry chanson “All Over the World.” Secret Symphony is therefore not without its charms, but ultimately it’s a clear step backwards from an artist who appeared to be overcoming her notable lack of edge.
Apropos of nothing, Georgian-born chanteuse Katie Melua surprised everyone with 2010′s The House by hooking up with William Orbit and fusing her familiar brand of coffee table jazz-pop with flourishes of subtle electronica. Perhaps concerned that it failed to top the charts like her previous 3 records, the 27-year-old has reverted to type for its follow-up, Secret Symphony, by returning to mentor Mike Batt, the former Wombles songwriter responsible for her incredible early success.
Melua’s distinctive velvety vocals were always more intriguing than the so-laid-back-they’re-horizontal arrangements which surrounded them, but her last effort was an encouraging sign that she could leave her usual dinner party background music firmly behind. And while Batt’s contributions here — such as the drowsy lounge pop of “The Bit That I Don’t Get,” the steel-laden country balladry of “The Walls of the World,” and the yearning, string-soaked title track — are all typically elegant, demure, and understated affairs, they’re so overly polite and ultimately anodyne, they make Eva Cassidy sound like a death metal act. If any more evidence were needed that Batt appears to be restricting her talents, Melua is far more captivating on the self-penned chamber pop of “Forgetting All My Troubles,” and the four cover versions included, from the soaring torch song reworking of Ron Sexsmith’s “Gold in Them Hills,” to the double bass-led shuffle treatment of Fran Healy’s “Moonshine,” to the straightforward rendition of Françoise Hardy’s sultry chanson “All Over the World.” Secret Symphony is therefore not without its charms, but ultimately it’s a clear step backwards from an artist who appeared to be overcoming her notable lack of edge.
