Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Piece by Piece

 
Album Review: Piece by Piece
 

  • Artist: John Martyn
  • Rating: StarStarStar
  • Release Date: 1986
  • Total Time: 40:51
  • Type: Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Folk

Review

Piece by Piece was the second album recorded by Martyn after his return to Island Records after a seven year absence. During this time, his releases on other labels had seen most of any rough edges smoothed off and his guitar playing become almost non-existent. The lighter jazz/pop style which had begun on Grace and Danger had taken over. Keyboardist Foster Paterson was a prominent contributor to the songs on Piece By Piece, which are a mix of the instantly memorable and the soon forgettable. The title song, written by Paterson, is one of the memorable ones. Elsewhere on the album, "Lonely Love" is Martyn at his breeziest and is the happiest sounding you're likely to hear him; "Angeline" is a sublime love song and has the honor of being the first CD single ever released; "John Wayne" would become a staple of his live shows. The rest of the songs, while not bad, do not stand out as these tracks do. Even so, Island pulled out all the stops in promoting the album and a blizzard of materials, including singles, a box-set interview, a tour program, and a press kit were issued. As a result, the album did respectably well in sales and even spawned a live album, Foundations, from the resulting tour. First pressings of the CD had four extra songs on the end ("Tight Connection to My Heart," "Solid Air," "One World," "May You Never"), making it quite collectable. ~ Rob Caldwell, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Nightline John Martyn John Martyn (5:07)
Lonely Love John Martyn John Martyn (3:17)
Angeline John Martyn John Martyn (4:44)
One Step Too Far John Martyn John Martyn (3:21)
Piece by Piece Foster Paterson John Martyn (3:51)
Serendipity John Martyn John Martyn (4:11)
Who Believes in Angels John Martyn John Martyn (4:56)
Love of Mine John Martyn John Martyn (4:49)
Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love) John Martyn (3:51)
John Wayne John Martyn John Martyn (6:53)
Solid Air John Martyn John Martyn (5:44)
One World John Martyn John Martyn (4:10)
May You Never John Martyn John Martyn (3:41)

Credits

John Martyn (Synthesizer), John Martyn (Guitar), John Martyn (Vocals), John Martyn (Producer), John Martyn (Main Performer), Danny Cummings (Percussion), Foster Paterson (Keyboards), Foster Paterson (Vocals (Background)), Robin Rankin (Engineer), Alan Thomson (Bass), Alan Thomson (Fretless Bass), Colin Tully (Saxophone), Mike Owen (Photography), Brian Young (Engineer)
Search unanswered questions...
Enter a word or phrase...
All Community Q&A Reference topics
 
Wikipedia: Piece by Piece (album)
Top
Piece by Piece
Piece by Piece cover
Studio album by 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
Professional reviews
Katie Melua chronology
Call off the Search
(2003)
Piece by Piece
(2005)
Pictures
(2007)
Alternate cover
Special Bonus Edition
Special Bonus Edition

Piece by Piece, released in 2005, is the second album by UK jazz and blues singer Katie Melua.

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" in 2003.

The album was re-released in 2006, as Piece By Piece: Special Bonus Edition, with three additional tracks and a bonus DVD with concert Moment by Moment and promo videos.

Contents

Track listing

  1. "Shy Boy" (Mike Batt) – 3:22
  2. "Nine Million Bicycles" (Mike Batt) – 3:15
  3. "Piece by Piece" (Katie Melua) – 3:24
  4. "Halfway up the Hindu Kush" (Katie Melua, Mike Batt) – 3:06
  5. "Blues in the Night" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) – 4:12
  6. "Spider's Web" (Katie Melua) – 3:58
  7. "Blue Shoes" (Mike Batt) – 4:39
  8. "On the Road Again" (Floyd Jones, Alan Wilson) – 4:38
  9. "Thank You, Stars" (Mike Batt) – 3:39
  10. "Just Like Heaven" (Robert Smith, Porl Thompson, Simon Gallup, Lol Tolhurst, Boris Williams) – 3:35
  11. "I Cried for You" (Katie Melua) – 3:38
  12. "I Do Believe in Love" (Katie Melua) – 3:00
  13. "It's Only Pain" (Mike Batt) (Special Bonus Edition track)
  14. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Lennon/McCartney) (acoustic) (Special Bonus Edition track)
  15. "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming" (Mike Batt) (Special Bonus Edition track)

A special edition for Spanish department store El Corte Inglés had additional tracks - Spanish versions of "Closest Thing to Crazy" (aka "Esa Clase de Locura") and "Faraway Voice" (aka "Otra vez tu").

Charts and Sales

Chart (2005/2006/2007) Peak
position[1]
Certification Sales
Australia 31
Austria 5
Belgium 4 Gold 15,000+
Denmark 1
European Top 100 Albums 2 2x Platinum 2,000,000
Finland 23
France 9 Platinum 254.000+
Germany 2 3x Platinum 600,000+
Italy 17
Ireland 2
The Netherlands 1 (11 weeks) 3x Platinum 230,000+
Norway 1 (1 week) Platinum 40,000
New Zealand 16 Gold 7,500+
Poland* 1 2x Platinum 140,000+
Sweden 6 Platinum 40,000
Switzerland 3 2x Platinum 60,000+
United Kingdom 1 (1 week) 4x Platinum 1,200,000+
US Billboard 200 108
US Billboard Top Heatseekers 2
US Billboard Top Jazz Albums 3

*Album was on Polish Albums Chart for 67 weeks

Personnel

Production

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

References

External links

Preceded by
Life in Slow Motion
by David Gray
UK number one album
October 2, 2005October 8, 2005
Succeeded by
You Could Have It So Much Better
by Franz Ferdinand

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Piece by Piece (album)" Read more