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Hi,

I'm very pleased to get this item but I would like that you use a better packingmaterial. Like hard carbon box because the CD plastic was very damaged.

I originally purchased Katie Melua's CD after hearing her perform for the first time on a national morning talk show last year. I couldn't stop listening to it. Still haven't. Afraid that I would literally wear out this CD, I ordered another one when I saw this special CD and bonus DVD offered by [...]. Ms. Melua has a unique blues/jazz voice that grabs your heart; her songs of loss and longing speak to your soul. I especially recommend two songs from this CD: "The Closest Thing to Crazy" and "Tiger in the Night." Would like to see this artist perform in Baltimore at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center!

Songs are a bit more mellow than her Piece by Piece cd, but not so mellow that you want to take a nap. The dvd is excellent, and it is worth it just to watch her channel Bob Dylan.

Katie is one of those once in a lifetime talents. Her voice is beautiful and strong. While the modern female "jazz" singer is not the in the mold of singers in the past, there are some truly talented female performers in the genre: Katie Melua, Dianna Krall, etc.

Sadly, Katie (because of her age) is lumped into the same category of the most overrated performer ever: Norah Jones.
Hearing about Norah's "phrasing abilities" is like hearing about Mariah Carey's 8... no 9... no 10... no 11 octave range (you get the picture).

Katie's phrasing is average, but her voice and talent supersede this genre!!

The Amazon review hits it pretty much on-target. She has the voice and talent for a great career - her choice of materials could use much more work. This is decent CD - some great and excellent tracks where her voice rises to the material - her voice works best on sexy and melancholy cabaret choices like BLAME IT ON THE MOON and I thought her performance on MY APHRODISIAC IS YOU was a cute, sexy, breathy cabaret take (as opposed to the Amazon review who dislaiked it) but on other tracks when she has to really "plow" into it, she is clueless for instance, butchering the MOCKINGBIRD SONG. If you like to hear all new talent, you should give her a listen but right now, you should just buy a few tracks until she gets the material to match her strengths.

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 UK children's TV show The Wombles (big furry animal who roamed Wimbledon Common - 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.