Piece by Piece (album)

Infobox Album | Name = Piece by Piece
Type = Album
Artist = Katie Melua


Released = 26 September 2005 (UK)
6 June 2006 (USA)
Recorded = 2004-2005
Genre = Jazz/Blues
Length = 44:32
Label = Dramatico
Producer = Mike Batt
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:48q8g40ctv8z link]
Last album = "Call off the Search"
(2003)
This album = "Piece by Piece"
(2005)
Next album = "Pictures"
(2007)
Misc = Extra album cover
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Background = lightsteelblue


Lower caption = Special Bonus Edition

"Piece by Piece" is the second album by UK jazz and blues singer Katie Melua, released in 2005 (see 2005 in music).

Its first single, "Nine Million Bicycles", became Melua's first top five hit in the UK and caused controversy when science writer Simon Singh said the lyrics "demonstrates a deep ignorance of cosmology and no understanding of the scientific method". The second single was a double A-side comprising "I Cried for You" and a cover of The Cure's "Just like Heaven". The former song was written after Melua met the writer of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" and is about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, while the latter was recorded for the soundtrack to the film "Just like Heaven". The single peaked outside the UK top twenty, and the album's third single, "Spider's Web" (which Melua wrote when she was eighteen, during the Iraq war) did not reach the top forty.

Melua wrote the title song "Piece by Piece" after she broke up with her boyfriend Luke Pritchard, and "Half Way up the Hindu Kush" was written by Katie and Mike Batt as a joke playing on the innuendo implicit in the title phrase, which cropped up in a conversation about scarves on a train journey. Katie wrote the chorus and Mike the verses. Alongside covers of "Blues in the Night" and Canned Heat's "On the Road Again", the album includes "Thank You, Stars", which was previously released as a B-side on Melua's debut single "The Closest Thing to Crazy" (2003).

The album was rereleased in 2006, as Piece By Piece Special Edition, with three additional tracks and a bonus concert DVD, "Moment By Moment".

Track listing

#"Shy Boy" (Mike Batt) – 3:22
#"Nine Million Bicycles" (Mike Batt) – 3:15
#"Piece by Piece" (Katie Melua) – 3:24
#"Halfway up the Hindu Kush" (Katie Melua, Mike Batt) – 3:06
#"Blues in the Night" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) – 4:12
#"Spider's Web" (Katie Melua) – 3:58
#"Blue Shoes" (Mike Batt) – 4:39
#"On the Road Again" (Floyd Jones, Alan Wilson) – 4:38
#"Thank You, Stars"* (Mike Batt) – 3:39
#"Just like Heaven" (Robert Smith, Porl Thompson, Simon Gallup, Lol Tolhurst, Boris Williams) – 3:35
#"I Cried for You" (Katie Melua) – 3:38
#"I Do Believe in Love" (Katie Melua) – 3:00
#"It's Only Pain" (Mike Batt) (Special Edition Bonus Track)
#"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Lennon/McCartney) (acoustic) (Special Edition Bonus Track)
#"Sometimes When I'm Dreaming" (Mike Batt) (Special Edition Bonus Track)* Thank You Stars first appeared on the single for 'The Closest Thing To Crazy'

Charts

*Note: As the album was out of the charts for 4 weeks the correct sales are unavailable for now.

Personnel

* Vocals: Katie Melua
* Guitars: Katie Melua, Chris Spedding, Jim Cregan
* Piano: Mike Batt (Katie Melua on "I Do Believe in Love")
* Bass: Tim Harries
* Drums: Henry Spinetti
* Solo Trumpet: Dominic Glover
* Solo violin: Mike Darcy
* Percussion: Martin Ditchman, Chris Karan
* Harmonica: Paul Jones ("Blues in the Night")
* Ethnic flutes: Adrian Brett ("Nine Million Bicycles")
* Mandolin: Peter Knight ("Thank You, Stars")
* Sitar: Craig Pruess ("Halfway up the Hindu Kush")
* Orchestra: The Irish Film Orchestra - Conductor: Mike Batt

Production

*Producer: Mike Batt
*Engineer: Steve Sale
*Arranger: Mike Batt
*Photography: Simon Fowler

External links

* [http://www.katiemelua.com Katie Melua website]