Katie Melua Explores ‘Knotty Complexities’ of Love
Georgian-British singer-songwriter Katie Melua just released her latest single, “A Love Like That,” an orchestrated exploration of love that features production by English composer Leo Abrahams.
Director Charlie Lightening helmed the lush video that features British actor Billy Howle.
Melua’s latest studio album, Album No. 8, comes out Oct. 16.
Originally from Tbilisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Melua moved to the UK when she was only 8. She released her debut album, Call Off the Search, when she was just 19 years old.
Since then, Melua has released seven UK Top 10 studio albums; most recently, in 2016, she delivered In Winter, which she recorded with the Gori Women’s Choir in her native Georgia. She and Kate Bush are the only two British female artists in UK chart history to reach the Top Ten with seven consecutive albums.
“A Love Like That” finds her attempting to reconcile the “knotty complexities of real-life love” to its fairytale counterpart.
The full cast of musicians on the track includes drummer Emre Ramazanoglu, flautist Jack Pinter and the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra.
The video represents the first in a series of visuals Melua has collaborated on with Lightening (Paul McCartney, Liam Gallagher, Kasabian) and Howle (Star Wars, Dunkirk, Outlaw King).
“This song is asking the essential timeless question about mad love, ‘How do you make a love like that last?’” says Melua in a press release. “But before it became about love between a couple it started its life centered on my relationship with work and the stamina required to keep being an artist in the music industry. It was only after my co-composer Sam Dixon and I wrapped our session that I retreated to a cottage in the English countryside for three weeks to wrestle with the song’s lyrics. “A Love Like That” continues a narrative that is across the new album. And in the context of love, it is about having the courage to speak openly and freely.”
Leo Abrahams is a lauded musician, composer and producer (credits include Jon Hopkins, Regina Spektor, Pulp, Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones soundtrack with Brian Eno, and Steve McQueens’ Hunger soundtrack with David Holmes).
“The highlight for me was recording the orchestra in Tbilisi (Georgia) with Katie,” Abrahams says of recording with Melua. “The arrangement is written to convey the protagonist’s changing state of mind throughout the song: from turbulent to calm, sentimental to defiant. Technically, this was probably the simplest arrangement on the record but we had to do almost 20 takes of the tremolando introduction to get the right amount of aggression but with an elegant resolution. The players seemed to enjoy it!”
Photo Credit: Rosie Matheson
