There is something innately British about Katie Melua's appeal, her style reminiscent of former '60s UK legend Lulu, especially in songs that combine adult contemporary pop with a slight crooning style ("All In My Head," "If You Were A Sailboat"). Whatever her je-ne-sais-quality is, Melua's popularity in Europe is massive; she has sold more CDs in Britain than any other female artist in both 2005 and 2006. At the time of the release of her third CD, Pictures, sales of her first two were at an impressive eight million sold and climbing. Many compare her sound and style to Norah Jones and Diana Krall, but that is quite misleading, as she is neither as bluesy as Jones nor as jazzy as Krall, landing in fact much more in the middle of the road stylistically. Cover songs are in short supply on this disc (unlike Melua's prior releases); Pictures contains only one cover tune, a Motown-affected Leonard Cohen song entitled "In My Secret Life." While all the other songs are originals, many do significantly resemble Cohen cuts, pairing poetry with melancholy ("If The Lights Go Out," "Dirty Dice"). One word of advice to the unfamiliar; the former Russian resident has a vibrato that at times approaches a warble, so although Melua's music clearly has massive appeal to an entire continent, North American eardrums would do well to preview her sonic wares prior to purchasing the whole disc. --Denise Sheppard
