In these days of Instant Gratification, we look at tons of images every day on social media. If we like one or two we might click on a little heart symbol, but either way after a few seconds we move on and the moment is gone. And are we any better with our own photos? Whether you carry a digital camera with you or just use your phone, chances are you have been lured into the modern culture of snapping everything that moves. And indeed, everything that doesn't move too. You have probably amassed thousands of photos on your phone and computer. But how often do you look at them? Really look at them? Study and savour every detail? The trouble is, when you take so many it becomes hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Most people don't have time to weed out the rubbish pics, delete them, then organise and categorise the others. Some do: and create folders for Holidays, Family, Nature, Cat funnies, and so on. But even with diligent organisation you are still going to be left with a lot of pictures in folders on your computer. And you'll probably add to them more than you look at them. The other issue is longevity. Where do you keep your pictures? On your phone? On your computer hard drive? In the Cloud? Well guess what: none of those are infallible or future-proof. You can't simply assume they will all still be there in twenty years from now. How many of you, I wonder, still have old VHS tapes but nothing to play them on. Technology changes. I was recently surprised and a bit dismayed to find an old Word document that the modern incarnation of Word was unable to read!

There are still good reasons to keep physical copies of things. You should own a printer. You should make use of it. A screen still doesn't come anywhere close to holding a sheet of paper in your hand. I do all my writing on the computer but when it comes time to proof read and edit I always print it out and work with pencil and paper. There is still no better method. Same comes for taking notes. I've tried all kinds of notes apps and voice recorders but still nothing beats a notebook and pen. And as for photographs, well, some of those we give fleeting appreciation to and never look at again may be worth you taking a little more time over. If you *really* like a photo then capture it and print it out. Frame it or put it in a physical album you keep on the coffee table. And savour it properly, time and again. One of my Georgian friends recently posted her usual flurry of phone pics on social media. Among them was such a beautiful photo of her with her young daughter that it stopped me in my tracks. Such a gorgeous moment captured in time yet discarded into the Sea of Instagram for a few fleeting glances before sinking ever downwards into the murky digital depths, soon to be forgotten. Straight away I told her she should print that photo and frame it. One day her daughter will be grown up and will cherish that photo. If I hadn't stuck my nose in she may never have seen it. She agreed with my wise words. So I say to you all: find some time to go through old pics and act now to preserve any you love. Print them. Frame them. Above all, look at them. That's what photos are for: capturing a special moment so you can relive it whenever you want. But do it before it is too late. In the words of Rutger Hauer, "all these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain".

There is a gorgeous performance of "A Love Like That" up on YouTube, filmed on Katie's recent trip to Poland. Vocals as magical as ever, and immaculate accompaniment by Zurab. This kind of thing just soothes your soul.

Click the pic to go see...

Another album you may have missed...

The previous entry in this series fell firmly into the category of "golden oldie". Today I'm only going back 3 years, but to an album you might classify "obscure".

Minco Eggersman is a Dutch musician based in Amsterdam. He plays in bands, writes soundtracks for movies and even runs a record label. Kavkasia is one of his solo albums.

Kavkasia Minco Eggersman

As you may have guessed from the title, Kavkasia is inspired by Minco's trip to Georgia a few years ago. Georgia has a habit of inspiring its visitors—it certainly gave me plenty of ideas for a future novel. This collection of tracks may resonate more with you if you have actually been to Georgia, especially "Melisma & Gurian" which gives you a flavour of the goosebump-inducing polyphonic singing you will find there. "Stepantsminda" is an organ piece which suitably encapsulates the religious awe that place fills you with. Several tracks are symphonic, some have understated vocals, a couple even have a brass band vibe, which admittedly feels a bit more Barnsley than Batumi, but overall it does stir up my longing for Georgia, and it is definitely an album I'd listen to on a flight to Tbilisi.

Listen to Kavkasia on Spotify via the link below:

Play on:

John Lennon would have been about to turn 80. I'm sure he would have still been making music. Just imagine what we have missed (pun intended). The BBC are celebrating his life with some programs in early October, including "John Lennon at the BBC" on October 4th, 7pm. This will contain archive footage of the great man as well as covers of his songs by various artists including none other than our favourite gal herself. We don't yet know which track Katie will sing but if I had to guess I'd go with "Love". Whatever it is, seeing what she has done with Beatles material in the past, it will be amazing.

The music industry is a business. A cut-throat one at that. And like all businesses, it involves deals being struck. These deals are not always in the best interests of either the artist or their fans but someone, who cares little for either, sees an opportunity to make money or otherwise gain advantage and this invariably leads to a handful of winners and a legion of losers. And the majority of fans end up, you guessed it, on the losing side.

Katie’s album B-Sides may have been titled Tracks That Got Away but they didn't: they are on B-Sides for all to enjoy (unless you have no way to access digital music). Sadly though, there are some tracks that really have got away.

I imagine that over the course of Katie’s long career there have been quite a few tracks she has recorded that, for one reason or another, have not found a place on an album. As frustrating as that is for fans, it isn’t unusual. What is more frustrating though is when the fans know of tracks but simply have no way to access them. And I know of at least 4 examples...

“How Sweet Is It To Be Loved By You”

This Marvin Gaye classic was covered by Katie and added to the Tesco Digital Music version of The Katie Melua Collection. There was no other way to get it. And since Tesco bailed out of digital music years ago this song has evaporated like a wispy cloud in summer sun. Even a lot of people who shelled out for it found they could no longer access it. Shambolic, Tesco.

“By The Light Of The Magical Moon”

This Marc Bolan song was covered by Katie for a Times Online exclusive download. Pretty niche market, that. And again, no way for the legion of her fans to get to hear it now.

“I Put A Spell On You”

This track was an exclusive for the US iTunes Store. Which is pretty hard luck on the bulk of Katie’s fans, who reside in the UK and Europe. But at least you can find a version of Katie performing it live on YouTube.

“Under The Cherry Moon”

Finally, my old favourite I’m always banging on about. This Prince cover is listed as a track on the iTunes version of Pictures. But if you play it you get “Somewhere In The Same Hotel”. No one seems to know why. Nor does anyone seem to care (apart from yours truly) so most likely nothing will ever get done about it.

My hope is that Katie has the rights to her recordings so perhaps one day we could see some of these tracks on another B-Sides type collection. I guess it depends on the nature of those exclusivity deals—if they don’t have an expiry date then these tracks may be lost to us forever. It’s a crying shame, but Katie loves her fans and if there’s anything she can do I’m sure she will at some point so don’t abandon all hope just yet! (Equally, don't hold your breath...)

Another tricky Katie Conundrum. I'd love to have a go at these myself but already knowing the answer tends to diffuse the tension somewhat.

You thought I'd forgotten didn't you? Well, I hadn't, it's just that clues take a bit of coming up with. But here you are, crossword no. 4 to celebrate "Your Longing Is Gone". By the way, if a clue sounds like nonsense then it is probably an anagram. Hope that helps!

If you want to print it out to fill in just click on the puzzle to open it in a separate window and hit CMD-P (Mac) or CTRL-P (Windows).

I don’t watch very much television these days and when I do I’m very selective, but one show I always have to see is the BBC’s The Repair Shop. If you haven’t seen it, basically it involves members of the public taking battered and broken old possessions to a converted barn in the country where a team of experts fix, restore and rejuvenate them. Things like your granddad’s clock that is dusty and broken and that you haven’t seen working since you were a kid but remember ticking and chiming in his hallway. And when you return to The Repair Shop you find it working perfectly and looking exactly how you remember it and the memories come flooding back as if you’re right there with him again. It’s tearjerking for the owners of the item but also for the repairers and indeed the viewers. In this modern throwaway society it is beautiful to see old, cherished items given new life so they can be passed on to future generations and keep the link with people long lost alive. Imagine writing with a fountain pen knowing that your great-grandfather wrote love letters with it to your great-grandmother during the First World War, after it had been left forgotten and not working for fifty years. How does that compare to a disposable biro from the supermarket? It doesn’t, that’s how.

As usual, I’m taking a geological age to get to the point but hey, what’s the rush? The point about the expert craftspeople in The Repair Shop is that they are not just fixing objects, they are fixing memories. They are fixing people. And that is exactly what Katie does—she fixes people.

It is interesting that Katie’s father is a doctor and her mother a nurse. Katie may not have followed in their footsteps but in her own way she has become just as potent a healer. More so, in fact, because she can heal someone on the other side of the world without even knowing they exist. That really is a gift. Whilst her Dad has to be with a patient to help them, Katie can be sat at home merrily munching a chip butty and watching Love Island (more likely sipping a herbal tea and reading poetry but that’s not such a humorous image) whilst someone somewhere far, far away, though perhaps not another galaxy, though you never know, is listening to her music and starting to feel a little better about themselves and life itself. It is a truly remarkable thing, but she has a gift of getting into your mind and telling you that everything is going to be all right. And somehow you believe her. When she fixed me I was so grateful but I had no idea how she’d done it and I began to wonder if it really had been her or whether some other change in my life had caused it. Now I know it was 100% all Katie. Whenever I have even the slightest of wobbles a quick listen of her keeps me balanced like stabilisers on a bicycle. There’s some kind of magic at work but I no longer even care how it works, I’m just grateful it does and I have the confidence to tackle anything in life knowing that her steadying hand on my shoulder is never more than a set of earbuds away. And since she has started her weekly online engagement with fans it has become apparent I’m far from the only broken soul she has mended. Only the tip of the iceberg has been revealed but it is clear that there are any number of people out there, from all corners of the globe (not that a globe has corners of course) that have found solace and healing in Katie’s music. Her parents can be proud that their daughter is saving lives and easing pain on a daily basis. If I were a doctor I’d be making Katie’s albums available on prescription for there is no drug known to science that can compare with the healing power of her music. And the joyous news is that her skills and powers are still being improved and strengthened. It is already clear that Album No. 8 is going to be able to soothe more suffering than ever before. On behalf of all those she has nursed back to health I simply say: thank you, Katie.

This sublime song deserved a really good video. It got one. A masterpiece. Three minutes of pure aching beauty, directed exquisitely by Mariam Sitchinava. On the face of it, just a couple of gorgeous Georgian girls having fun. It captures that kind of dreamy perfect day you may experience once or twice in a lifetime, if you are lucky; the kind of day you never want to end. If you want to you can ask questions and try to analyse meanings and messages but why do that? Better you jump into this world in your mind, hear the laughter of the girls, smell the Black Sea and wild grasses, share in that magical day, and take a break from the troubles of the real world. They used to say "see Naples and die". I say "see Batumi and live". The stunning Black Sea resort of Batumi and the Adjaran coastline provide the backdrop to a video you could never tire of watching. The same goes for the carefree happiness on Katie's face, the kind of happiness you wish upon her for the rest of her life. Combining her innate talent, understated intelligence, natural pulchritude and Georgian work ethic, Katie is producing breathtaking music and imagery for her latest album. If you haven't seen it yet then stop listening to me drone on and click the pic below to go and watch this work of art. (But by all means do come back afterwards!)

Katie wanted me to share with you this timeline graphic of her life so here it is. To see it in its full glory click the image and it will load the full version in your browser. Enjoy!

You have now spent half your life in the bonkers business you love so much. That curly-haired girl that wowed Wogan stuck to her Georgian work ethic and all these years later has become a truly world-class singer-songwriter who can hold her own in any company. You've given me more than you can know. Thank you for being you. May you keep doing what you love as long as the longing remains. Have a beautiful day! AAK

Katie is giving us gifts on her birthday. The video for "Your Longing Is Gone" premieres at 6pm tomorrow on Katie's YouTube channel. It's looking like a stonking corker. I mean, with the combined photogenicity of Katie and Georgia how can it possibly fail to smack your gob? Watch it with her and type lots of little hearts in the comments box and wish her happy birthday! Oh, and don't forget to ask her when she's coming to your country because she has that kind of information right on the top of her head. You can click the pic below to go straight there because that's how good I am to y'all.

Press the play button and guess the song. Click "Show Me The Answer" when you think you know it or if you're stumped.

Seven second challenge: intro 14

Tiny Alien (The House)

Katie is in Poland ahead of her three concerts there next month, the only ones that have survived the covid cull. She was trying, though not really succeeding, to channel Hannibal Lecter at the airport, but in Warsaw she was more Van Gogh, resplendent in pastel yellow and blue.

I hang my head in shame as I admit I've not been near the gallery and wallpaper sections in quite a while. I do hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. But rejoice! There are now some new wallpapers in there, so bang up to date that even "Your Longing Is Gone " is covered. So if you fancy redecorating your desktop then why not let Katie stare at you all day and prevent you from getting any work done? If you want to download them then choose the "Wallpapers" menu option on the left, though I'm fully confident you had figured that one out already. Less obvious is the fact that I've sneakily bumped up the contents of the "Favourites" section in the gallery to 200 pics. Why am I so good to you all? I have no idea, I want shooting.

Whilst I have this opportunity I'll just mention, though I'm sure none of you could give a rat's dental appointment card, that I've spent most of the weekend slaving over a hot keyboard tweaking the site to within an inch of its life. They are not cosmetic tweaks this time, so you won't see a difference, but I've been tuning the engine, so to speak, for better performance so the pages should load a lot quicker. There are so many trade-offs in this kind of thing and I can't yet implement all the changes I'd like, such as converting GIFs to video for faster loading and so on because Safari isn't quite playing ball like the other browsers. But I... oh, you're asleep.
* Backs slowly out of the room and gently closes the door *

Another album you may have missed...

When Bob Dylan describes someone as one of his favourite songwriters you could be labelled a fool for not investigating why. Dylan famously said that when he heard a Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever". His debut album Lightfoot! was released in 1966. In March 2020, now in his 80s, he released a new album, Solo. It is criminal that such an outstanding legend of folk music isn't more widely appreciated.

If You Could Read My Mind Gordon Lightfoot

If you need a place to start with Gordon's back catalogue then album no. 6 is probably the one. Released in 1970, originally entitled Sit Down Young Stranger, the album was quickly retitled If You Could Read My Mind after that single proved a massive success for him. And that song is why this album is one you need to hear. Whilst packed with good folk songs, including one of the first covers of Kris Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee ", "If You Could Read My Mind " is the standout composition. If you could write a perfect song, it might well sound like this. Without doubt one of the finest songs ever written, it has that magical rare marriage of beautiful lyrics and exquisite melodies. When you hear it, it may put you in mind of the Whitney Houston track "The Greatest Love Of All ". So much so that Lightfoot took legal action against the writer of that track, Michael Masser. He eventually dropped it because he didn't want to have a negative effect on Houston's career, but the case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology. As beautiful as the melody is, it is the lyrics that floor you. Written about the failure of his marriage, it is a lyrical masterclass, summed up by poignant lines like

   ❝  I don’t know where we went wrong, 
	but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back ❞

Budding lyricists may want to note the technique of putting a rhyme word in the middle of the second line instead of at the end of it to give it a real yo-yo snap.

If you take a shine to Gord then happy days for you—he as 19 studio albums for you to catch up on!

Play on:

It was wonderful to see Katie performing "A Love Like That" live in Germany at the Deutschen Radiopreis 2020 event yesterday. She looked radiant and happy, and why wouldn't she be after finally getting the chance to do what she loves doing most—performing her music for people. And the performance was pure class: assured and note perfect, as we've come to expect from her. It is bittersweet to watch; on the one hand a joy to see her in her element again yet a sad reminder of what we are missing out on this autumn.

Click the pic below to go to the website and watch her performance.

What a lovely message Katie has written on her face mask: "I am so sad some of my shows are cancelled". Make that "most" though. And not convinced her eyes are backing up the message... 😉

I do try, really I do, not to be too lavish in my praise for Katie cos I know the lady don’t like it, though she does kind of bring it on herself by being generally phenomenal, so I’m going to restrain myself and merely call her a bucket. There, that’s not at all over the top is it? Yes, Katie is a jewel-encrusted enchanted golden bucket of purest magnificence. I should get away with that. So, let’s have another chat about Album No. 8 then.

Right, thanks to a tongue-loosening bottle or two of chacha, I’ve got to the bottom of how Album No. 8 came to be written. It seems Katie chained up Don Black and Burt Bacharach in her basement and fed them nothing but cold gruel and wouldn’t let them go until they wrote her a bunch of great songs and signed statements declaring it to be her work. Oh, I’m just joshin’ with y’all, of course. It was Dylan, not Bacharach…

If I could be serious for a moment it would be a first I think we have seen enough evidence now to prove beyond all doubt what most of us already knew—that Katie is a world-class songwriter. If the three names I mentioned in the previous paragraph set up a songwriting academy I have no doubt they’d be thrilled to have Katie as one of the tutors. And her pupils would be the luckiest students ever for I know she would inspire and bring out the very best in them.

In these modern times of digital overload there is so much content out there vying for our attention—the multitude of terrestrial television channels has been joined by on-demand video, online radio, YouTube, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, social media, streaming music, apps, audiobooks, ebooks, multiplayer games, virtual reality, augmented reality and even, occasionally, actual reality. Prior to the digital age, a new album release by a major artist was a big deal and caused much excitement. Nowadays, even the biggest global superstars need a fleet of monster marketing machines to cut through the noise and get attention for their new record. All of that is to say that I fear Album No. 8 may not enjoy as much success as I am convinced it will deserve. I predict the critical acclaim will be high, and rightly so, and if there is any justice in the world it will maintain Katie’s run of top-ten album entries. I hope I am wrong but I’m worried sales might be solid rather than spectacular. In my eyes, this is an album that deserves to be number one for a few weeks and hailed as a classic. It should make Katie a national treasure in the UK (she already is in Georgia) and a global superstar. She has a rock-solid core fanbase and I’m certain that is about to increase but she is still vastly underrated and I just don’t know if even this masterpiece of an album is going to be enough to change that. What I do know is that the fans who already love her are going nowhere and that will never change. And if you listen very carefully in 34 days from now you may just hear the explosion of their collective minds being blown.

Katie continues to fling singles at us with dizzying speed and we are getting punch-drunk on her knockout blows. “Your Longing Is Gone” is the fourth single from Album No. 8, and the fifth track we’ve now heard from it so far. Half way there and I’m wondering if I can go the distance because every one of those tracks has floored me so far. If this was a boxing match then my corner would have thrown the towel in and Katie would be declared world champion. But it is a poor analogy because there’s nothing pugilistic about this music—it is about love, not war. And these songs are like being wrapped up in your favourite blanket and hugged to within an inch of your life.

Love is a strange thing and something with which we all have a different experience. The songs on this album really make you think about love and what it means to you. I remain unloved but I no longer worry about it. It is a numbness compared to the pain of losing love—a pain I haven’t felt for a long, long time and I hope I never do again. I consider myself fortunate to be a giver rather than a taker and my approach is to spread as much love as I can, whether people need it or not, without paying mind to any of it coming back. Instead of sitting huddled up feeling sorry for yourself, get out and be positive towards others and it will help you feel so much better about life.

“Your Longing Is Gone” is sumptuous. The lyrics are exquisite, whilst the music is dripping with sweet melody as always and the astonishing arrangements given to all the tracks on Album No. 8 ensure she has another polished gem to blind us with.

I’m running out of words with this album. Every track I hear makes me think it is the best thing I’ve ever heard and then the next one comes along and raises the bar even higher. I keep waiting for the track that breaks the trend and makes me think “oh, that’s a bit meh” but this is Katie we’re talking about so I have to accept that isn’t going to happen and there are five more beautiful songs I’m going to have to find a way to survive. This music is sophisticated, assured, accomplished and mesmeric. I already know that Album No. 8 is the album I always hoped Katie would make but she’s done a far better job than I could ever have imagined. I feel sorry for all the other musicians in the world because I’m starting to think this album will be the only one I’ll ever need.

If you like women and cars, here's your Christmas present 😎

Desperately sad news but confirmation of something we were all expecting: the UK 2020 Tour has officially been cancelled. With just weeks before they were due to take place and the rising uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, it was inevitable. Even if they had been allowed they would have been restricted and not the experience the fans, nor indeed Katie, deserve.

Katie will be back, rest assured. At the moment it is impossible to even think about when that could happen so please don't bother throwing that kind of question at her. Only when concerts are allowed again can any thought be given to the planning of a new tour. By the time that happens, certain venues may not be available. These major tours involve complex logistics so even if concerts can resume within a few months please do not assume a full-blown tour will be possible in 2021. I'm sure Katie would try to get some dates in next year but the likelihood is that the replacement tour may have to wait until 2022. This is, of course, gutting for all of us but it is what it is and there's nothing we can do about it. And just imagine how desperately disappointing this is for Katie, to be bringing us these incredible new songs and not be able to perform them live in front of us. Also spare a thought for elderly fans who may no longer be up to attending a concert in two years' time. Let's just hope everyone who had tickets is able to attend when next the opportunity arises.

In the mean time, keep showing Katie your love and support through social media. Remember, even school books have last pages—we'll get through this wretched time and Katie's glorious new album is something to look forward to in just a few more weeks. It is a supernova of light in the very darkest of years. Stay safe everyone, and keep doing whatever it takes. We'll all meet up further on down the road.

There are many good singers out there. Too many to mention. The fact that you are reading this means you probably think Katie is pretty special (unless you are Katie, in which case you should know you are pretty special) but no doubt you could reel off a list of other favourites too. Some of your favourites might be on my list too. Yay! Others might make me go "What? Seriously?".

The problem with liking things is that it is such an inexact science. Our brains are not computers; they do not operate on pure logic that is built upon rules based on binary decisions. Our "computers" are heavily influenced by chemicals (both natural and self-administered ;-). The balance of these chemicals is delicate and ever-changing. If you have a Big Mac and Coke one day then your brain might reach a different decision about something than if you'd had broccoli and cider. And the whole thing is a lottery because it is impossible to know how what you eat is going to influence your thinking (I'm sure some of you will be saying you know chocolate and wine will make you happy, but that is a general feeling and not the same as knowing exactly how your brain will react to a particular thing). All of which means are brains are constantly evolving and changing. In fact, during your entire life your brain will never be the same twice. It has even altered since you began reading this sentence. If you wrote down a list of your top ten favourite singers every year then it would, for most people, be different each year. Even if the names were the same, the order might change. What chance then that your list is going to match someone else's? Very little, that's what.

When you like someone's voice it is a decision your brain has made based on a mountain of little micro-decisions that you are unaware of. It is not simply about the vocal quality of the singer. Your emotional state when you first heard the voice is significant. Other factors you may not realise could have played a part, such as the colour of their eyes, their hairstyle, what they were wearing. Maybe your cat was asleep on your lap purring away contentedly—even that could have played a subconscious part in your brain's calculations. There are millions of reasons why you might have reached the conclusion that Katie is your favourite singer, and though someone else might agree with you about it, their reasons will be completely different to your own. Another person might consider Norah Jones their favourite singer but not give Katie a second listen. Yet another person might not like either Katie or Norah and wonder what all the fuss is about when Harry Styles is the best singer, *obvs*.

The point is, when we talk about great singers and who has the best voice and all that there can never be a definitive answer. Some will use statistics to force an answer, but as we all know, statistics are merely numerical lies. For example, ask a thousand people to name the best singer of all time. You will get a wide spread of answers but somebody, let's say Sinatra, might just get the most votes. Some people would then take that result as an assertion that Sinatra is indeed the greatest singer ever. The thing is, although he may have had the most votes, it might only have represented perhaps 30% of the votes. Which means that 700 people out of the 1000 did not consider Sinatra to be the greatest. And 700 is a lot more than 300, isn't it? The reasons we have for liking someone's voice are so varied that it makes the whole thing indefinable. There is no sensible way to decide whose voice is best. If you wanted to approach it from a purely scientific perspective then perhaps you could come up with a list of parameters like vocal range, amplitude, harmonic distortion and variation and so on. But the list of parameters would have to be agreed upon by the scientific community, which is never easy. Even if that happened, you would need several good samples of every singer since recordings began, and good luck gathering that, and then you'd need to feed it all into a supercomputer to crunch the numbers and wait for it to spit out the answer. And guess what? The answer wouldn't be Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald or Katie or even Harry Styles... It would most likely be someone you've never heard of. Maybe a Finnish part-time elk-herder called Arvi Panntilynen would turn out to be *technically* the best singer ever. Who knew? At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. If a particular voice is special to you then that is your business. No one can say you are wrong. Similarly, you can't really tell others that your idol has the best voice (unless you happen to be Arvi's number one fan); they have their own ideas and you have to respect their choice no matter how weird it seems to you. We are all individuals, no two the same, so let's just all revel in the sea of wonderful voices that wash over us and not worry in the slightest about which of them is best.
(p.s. It is Katie though. *hangs up quick*)

Today's album you may have missed is the debut album by Suzanne Vega.

❝ It's a one-time thing; it just happens a lot ❞

This is the opening line of Suzanne Vega's self-titled debut album and it hooked me instantly. Her unadorned voice speaking the lyric in Cracking with just an acoustic guitar accompaniment was a revelation in its breathtaking simplicity. I realised you didn't need a Spectoresque wall-of-sound to fill your mind with colours and imagery. These days, Katie is my musical Princess, hence AAK, but she was just a year old when this album arrived. If Dylan is the King of Lyrics then, for me, Vega is the undisputed Queen with words that are clever, quirky and imaginative. She paints pictures in my mind the like of which I'd never seen before and it changed how I thought about music. Her voice isn't amazing but it doesn't need to be; she doesn't require dazzling vocal gymnastics because her music and lyrics do all the work so her simple delivery never detracts from the story she is telling. Like all good storytellers she leaves you so engrossed in the tale that you barely notice she's there.

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Vega

Here's a few lines from Freeze Tag:

❝ We play that we're actors on a movie screen
    I will be Dietrich and you can be Dean
    You stand with your hand in your pocket
    and lean against the wall
    You will be Bogart and I will be Bacall ❞

Those names may mean nothing to young people in 2020 but in 1985 we could all identify with Suzanne's childhood recollections.

The song that put Suzanne on the map was Marlene On The Wall. Again, it is a song of its time, referring to a famous poster of Marlene Dietrich that countless teenage girls had on their wall whilst boys either had a Lamborghini or the girl with the tennis balls.

❝ Marlene watches from the wall
    Her mocking smile says it all
    As she records the rise and fall
    Of every soldier passing ❞

These wonderful lines from the chorus are dripping with layers of meaning and I'm sure Dylan himself would have been proud of them.

Whilst every track on this album is a gem in its own way, the one song that still blows me away to this day is The Queen And The Soldier, a stunning fable of impossible love. It is achingly beautiful and sad and by the end of it you feel as though Suzanne has read you an entire novel because you see the whole story in your mind.

If you have never heard this album I recommend you give it a go and if I do manage to convert you to Suzanne then the good news is she's still active so there's a good back catalogue for you to catch up on.

Play on:

   Katie: "Before we started making Album No.8, 
   Bob Ezrin asked me to compile a list of ten perfect songs 
   to act as a touchstone for the record… 
   but I couldn’t stop at ten."

Katie has shared a Spotify playlist of "Perfect Songs". I think it's a safe bet that no one else would have picked the same 21 tracks but it's a beautiful selection and several would have made my list too and you may think the same. Making lists like this is something I do all the time (you may have noticed) and some may consider it a pointless exercise but it really isn't. Anything that gets you thinking about songs that mean something to you is worthwhile.

I'm sure Katie could have gone on past a hundred. It's such a difficult task. I mean, you really could go on and on: Wichita Lineman, MacArthur Park, I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Close To You, At Last, Streets Of London, On Days Like These... it is nigh on impossible isn't it? I'm so, so happy to see Dylan songs in there too. (I think I could have picked 21 of his alone!). Of course, the one BIG difference between Katie's list and any of ours is that there are no Katie Melua tracks on it...
But see how it gets you thinking about great songs? Thanks Katie for sharing this.

Play on:

Today's Katie Conundrum is a bit more difficult, but it should be one that is on your mind at the moment!

I hope you all joined Katie live for the premiere of the "Leaving The Mountain" video on her YouTube channel yesterday. She claimed to be nervous. Bless. I mean, it's not as though a single one of the hordes of us who spent the day impatiently drumming our nails on the desk was ever going to react with anything over than pure love for it. It's a bit like Cadbury's saying "who wants some free chocolate?" and hundreds putting their hands up and saying "me! me! me!" and Cadbury's thinking to themselves "god, I hope they like chocolate". We like chocolate.
[heckler front of stage: if you're gonna talk about the video get on with it]
Anyway, so, how to describe the video. Well, imagine if you'd been the director tasked with creating this video and decided to make it as minimalist as you could possibly imagine. Imagine harder, because it is more minimalist than that. Basically, it is three people standing in a cave with only the camera man's head torch to see by. Katie stands in the middle like a vision in white whilst either side of her an acoustic guitar and double bass at first glance seem to be playing themselves until varying camera angles reveal glimpses of the musicians playing them (Katie's brother Zurab and bass player Tim Harries' daughter Nina.) This approach is spot on. The lush cinematic visuals that were so right for "A Love Like That" and "Airtime" would have been a distraction for "Leaving The Mountain". This song is a musical cuddle. Allowing Katie's immaculate lyrics to paint images in our minds was absolutely the best way to do it. Every one of us that has listened to those words will have imagined our own scenes and no two would be the same. It is yet another example of the painstaking thought and attention that has gone in to the crafting of Album No 8 and its presentation to the public. In what has been a difficult year for all of us, Katie is turning it into a special one by giving us a masterpiece of an album. Twenty years from now, covid will be forgotten and 2020 will be etched in our minds as the year of Album No. 8.

Click the pic below to head over to YouTube and watch three minutes of exquisite music.

Well Hello! Sorry, wrong one. Well OK! Seems the legendary stapling of glossy tree slices is available in Georgia too. And why wouldn't it be? Georgia may be a cultural gold mine but they have still found room for McDonalds and KFC and so on so why not the mags too. Is it different? Yes. In two ways: it is written in Georgian, fair play, and clearly, judging by the sample below, they have far classier covers! I'd be much more inclined to shell out my hard-earned lari for this than a UK version with a picture of Wayne Rooney wearing a knotted handkerchief on his head. Talking of lari, the price for this mag appears to be 4 of them. Which is 97 pence to you and me. So that's three ways it's different then.

Oh, and since this mag is all about poking into celebrity lives this seems like a good time to remind you all of something: Katie's private life is exactly that. None of our business. Let's just appreciate the unbelievable music she gives us.

Set your alarms! The video for "Leaving The Mountain" premieres at 5pm tomorrow on Katie's YouTube channel. Watch it with her and type lots of little hearts in the comments box and tell her how much you love her, because she doesn't know, and ask her when she's coming to your country, etc. etc. You know the drill.

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