There's a feeling on
Katie Melua
's ninth album, 2023's softly rendered
Love & Money
, that she's happy and wants to mark the occasion. It's a subtle, yet palpable shift from 2020's
Album No. 8
, a set of artfully diffuse indie pop recorded in the wake of her divorce following a six-year marriage. That album, produced with
Leo Abrahams
, felt diaristic and experimental, as if the Georgian-born/U.K.-raised
Melua
was sloughing off the Baroque arrangements of the '60s- and '70s-influenced pop of the first half of her career to find something even more personal. Once again working with
Abrahams
,
has returned with an album that feels lighter and more relaxed than its predecessor, as if she's worked through her transformation and can now take a deep breath and spread her metaphorical creative wings. It's a vibe she conjures on "Quiet Moves," a song that could either be
singing about her lover or herself, and the way she's learned to ignore her negative inner voice. She sings, "A voice that tells me I can't dance won't disappear/Seconds are making my heart and my head go baddum baddum baddum/Having you here makes that all go away." Or, perhaps what speaks more importantly to these lyrics is the fact that, while recording the album, she was pregnant with her first child, a life-changing experience that seems to underscore the warm feelings redolent in many of the songs.
is clearly enjoying life's simple pleasures here, whether it's spending a sunny day by the river as in "Lie in Heat" or invoking her need for quiet alone time, as in "Those Sweet Days." Similarly, on "First Date" she ruminates on falling in love and possibly meeting someone who will get carried away and "dream of our future days." If
is the sound of
getting carried away, then it seems to suit her just fine. ~ Matt Collar