{"product_id":"album-no-8","title":"Album No. 8","description":"Britain's Katie Melua returns to her intimate pop sound with 2020's artfully textured Album No. 8. The album is Melua's first proper studio follow-up to 2013s Ketevan and arrives four years after her majestic holiday collaboration with the Gori Women's Choir, In Winter. While a return to her original alternative pop style, Album No. 8 is nonetheless a creative departure from her past work. Produced by Leo Abrahams, it finds Melua in a deeply introspective mood, crafting lightly experimental songs that evince the influence of '70s Krautrock and more-contemporary indie rock influences. Most noticeable in this tonal shift is a change in Melua's vocals. Known for her warm, brightly resonant vocal style, here she eschews her delicate vibrato for a softer, more diffuse-sounding head voice. While the album was recorded in the wake of the end of her six-year marriage, calling Album No. 8 a breakup record feels reductive. Certainly, Melua explicitly addresses the breakup on the Brian Eno-esque \"Remind Me to Forget,\" singing, \"You're so good at hiding\/But I always seem to be reminded\/Love is change.\" Although similarly melancholy notions arrive elsewhere, as on the dusky \"A Love Like That\" and the yearning, post-punk-influenced \"Joy,\" the overall sentiment is one of deep self-reflection and judgment-free musical experimentation. Fuzzy synths, skittering electronic beats, and ghostly guitars pop up throughout the album. She delves into early '80s electro-pop on \"English Manner\" and sinks into sweetly sad-eyed Regina Spektor balladry on \"Heading Home,\" singing of her adolescence, \"I wish I could go back and tell my younger self none of this matters, even though it hurts like hell.\" Album No. 8 is an intensely personal album that feels like Melua made it for herself first and foremost. ~ Matt Collar","brand":"MovieMars","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45352495972639,"sku":"4050538751529","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/7833\/0399\/files\/ea3af118f3471cbb1717c1d6fd963124_e89e8648-90f9-487a-8456-119a6794a19f.jpg?v=1777585677","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemars.com\/products\/album-no-8","provider":"MovieMars","version":"1.0","type":"link"}