{"id":39808,"date":"2006-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/piece-by-piece\/"},"modified":"2006-06-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-21T00:00:00","slug":"piece-by-piece","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/piece-by-piece\/","title":{"rendered":"Piece By Piece"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><review><\/p>\n<p>Innocuous lite FM radio is one of the reasons kids<br \/>\ncan&#8217;t wait to get their licenses. One of the rewards for 16 years<br \/>\nof aural assault is the simple act of turning the dial away from<br \/>\nschlocky mom rock like Celine Dion, Michael Bolton and the<br \/>\nlate-career, movie soundtrack work of once-palatable crooners<br \/>\n(there are too many to name).<\/p>\n<p>How a new artist could get away with this negligible<br \/>\nnoise these days is befuddling, but the British public has lifted<br \/>\nKatie Melua to platinum status over the course of her three-year<br \/>\ncareer.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s nothing wrong with young Melua&#8217;s musicianship<br \/>\non <i>Piece By Piece<\/i>, her second effort. The piano and guitar<br \/>\nwork is admirable, if way over-produced, and her voice has a stern,<br \/>\nbut gentle flow with reflections of Mazzy Starr&#8217;s Hope<br \/>\nSandoval.<\/p>\n<p>But, the music itself is unremarkable and<br \/>\nunmemorable, lacking the smoky ambience that made kindred spirit<br \/>\nNorah Jones a household name in the states. Like the crappy radio<br \/>\nmusic many of our parents forced us to listen to, it&#8217;s lite. All<br \/>\nthe ingredients seem to be there, but the hooks are missing.<br \/>\n<i>Piece By Piece<\/i>, like schlock rock, lacks soul.<\/p>\n<p>The native Soviet Georgian adds an international<br \/>\nflavor to many of these rudimentary love songs, quoting global<br \/>\npopulation stats on &#8220;Nine Million Bicycles&#8221; and foreign landscapes<br \/>\non &#8220;Halfway Up The Hindu Kush.&#8221; The songs, though, substitute<br \/>\nSplenda for sugar and fail to stick to the ribs.<\/p>\n<p>If there&#8217;s a standout, it&#8217;s Melua&#8217;s cover of the Cure<br \/>\nclassic &#8220;Just Like Heaven.&#8221; Unlike the original, it&#8217;s kinda sexy.<br \/>\nThere&#8217;s a cautiously sensuous swagger to jazz standard &#8220;Blues In<br \/>\nThe Night,&#8221; as well. But, it doesn&#8217;t make up for the dismantling<br \/>\nboredom I get from <i>Piece By Piece<\/i>. It&#8217;s the same restless<br \/>\nfeeling I got during car travels of yore.<\/p>\n<p>I wouldn&#8217;t bar the 22-year-old from U.S. success down<br \/>\nthe road, but she&#8217;ll have to drop some of the production and pick<br \/>\nup some sass to make a mark.<\/p>\n<p><\/review><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":28369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7744],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-39808","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-katie-melua","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39808"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}