Secret Symphony

Katie Melua and her unique style

The career of that bright artist began at the very beginning of the twenty first century, when Katie issued her debut album Call Off the Search. That long play firmly stood out of the great variety of pop-albums, but many listeners probably did not even notice the appearance of such an unusual album. However the connoisseurs of jazz and blues were in the swim, so for them Call Off the Search was important indeed, as soon as that record acquainted them with Melua’s creativity. Then the singer presented not less significant works, such as Piece by Piece and Pictures. It is quite obvious that Katie did not have an aim to release a big number of albums in a short period of time, instead she decided to reach for the quality. It is quite a well-known fact that it is a lossless tactics. Listeners had always been waiting for artist’s fresh albums, and the release of every single piece of art was turned into a loud event. Melua was mastering her skills and at the same time she has always remained faithful to her style. Thus in her creativity the main role is still taken by jazz and blues, which is definitely a great reason of joy, because these musical genres are not made for the commercial approach. This is truly alive music that cannot be able to survive if it is not created by someone who puts his soul into this. So the lovers of these genres have a great opportunity to enjoy Katie’s brand new creation - Secret Symphony.

Secret Symphony – the sounds from London

Katie Melua recorded her fifth studio album in London with a great musician and conductor Mike Batt. No wonder that the result proved to be impressive indeed. The album included interpretations of various artists and the material, written by Melua and Batt. In one of the interviews Katie stated that she had wanted to sing other artists’ songs for a long time, and finally she decided to try her luck at that experiment. Thereby Secret Symphony is opened by Ron Sexsmith’s very delicate and melodiousness song Gold In Them Hills. Melua’s voice sounds there just amazing, so it feels that the song was written specially for Katie. The Bit That I Don't Get presents an excellent combination of guitars and beautiful orchestra arrangements, and it fits the record’s concept just fine. All in all the collaboration with Batt proved to be absolutely astonishing, and at some moments it can be difficult for one to choose what to pay attention to: to the music itself or to the singer’s voice. Of course everything sounds like a whole unity and no one would like to separate vocals and melodies, after all. Moonshine is a good example of that. Blues act will not be ignored by the lovers of the genre, and moreover that the song opens Melua’s performing skills in a fine way.

A new stage in Katie's art

Melua’s fifth studio work completely satisfied all expectations of the singer’s faithful fans. It has got everything that is so much loved by the listeners: beautiful melodies, words to remember and professional arrangements. In fact, in the aspect of arrangements Secret Symphony turned out to be especially strong, thanks to Mike Batt’s immense work. Just in two years Katie managed to prepare a high quality album, the basis of which is still presented by the artist’s two favorite genres – jazz and blues. She does not follow the direct rules of these musical directions, and that is quite logical, as soon as the main idea of these two is improvisation. However Katie enjoys experimenting with the sound, so she gets interesting songs that include charm of several genres at the same time. It seems that the singer, in spite of the fact that she had already found her style, still keeps on searching for the new edges of sound and ways of self-expression. This way or another, Katie’s creative research is fun to observe, and her every new album is of a great interest for many people. There is no doubt that Secret Symphony took a notable place in Melua’s discography, but the intrigue is still here: what will the next long play be like?