Today, acclaimed singer-songwriter Katie Melua has released her beautiful ninth studio album, Love & Money; a stunning and personal 10 track glimpse into Katie’s journey over the past two years.
The album is available digitally, on vinyl, and standard & deluxe CD formats. The deluxe CD includes 4 bonus tracks including a stunning duet with German recording artist Philipp Poisel.
The album comes ahead of Katie’s upcoming UK & EU tour in April & May, which includes a landmark show at The Royal Albert Hall in London on the 16th May.
Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, Katie Melua has travelled far in every sense. Immortalised by modern standards such as ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’ and ‘Nine Million Bicycles’, 2020’s Album No.8, was her most critically-acclaimed to date, seeing her come of age of as a lyricist, gently pushing back against the romantic idealism that forms the language of love in pop songs, and searching instead for something that felt closer to her own experience.
Amassing 56 platinum certifications over a glittering 20 year career, Katie has become one of Britain’s highest-selling recording artists after bursting into the national consciousness with her chart topping debut Call Off The Search and releasing 8 consecutive top 10 UK albums.
From whichever point you last picked up the story, there’s perhaps no better time to behold the evolution of Katie Melua as a singer-songwriter than in the songs that make up Love & Money.
Produced by Leo Abrahams (Ghostpoet, Brian Eno, Regina Spektor), Love & Money was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in the summer of 2022 while Katie was pregnant with her newborn son – her journey to motherhood is something Katie recently spoke on in a beautifully intimate self-penned piece with Grazia (read here).
An exquisite collection of songs sculpted by the gratitude of their creator and the positivity found in a new relationship, it also deals with self-acceptance in the face of change and her attempts to let go of “that background belief that happiness carries less weight than its opposite.”
This was perhaps brought home most profoundly in the album’s first single and opener ‘Golden Record’ which sees Katie reflecting on her place in the world; the bonuses and challenges of being a woman in the music industry and the delicate balance of career and family, all brought to life in a crescendo of personal acceptance and catharsis.
The album also features the previously released ‘Those Sweet Days’ that Katie describes as “a celebration of going easy on yourself”, and the sun-dappled ‘Quiet Moves’, inspired by the feeling of watching her partner dance for the first time.
One of the themes Katie narrates on the record is the thrilling but also frightening terrain of new love.
On ‘Darling Star’ she discusses the sense of inner peace she sees within her partner and now father to her newborn son, and ‘First Date’ that delves into her own inner monologue after their first date, a 13 hour round trip that saw the pair embark on a seaweed-collecting excursion in Margate.
The sweet relief of finding love in a time of unprecedented flux is intensified along the way by tender memorials to those who didn’t quite make it. Beneath the surface calm of ‘14 Windows’ lie the deep blue sentiments of a song inspired by her late psychiatrist Dr Mike McPhillips, and another exceptional soul to which Melua pays tribute is climate justice writer, essayist and social media vigilante, Mary Annaïse Heglar, on ‘Reefs’.
Love & Money 2023 UK Tour Dates
May 2 Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
May 3 Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth
May 5 Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
May 6 Sage, Gateshead
May 8 Barbican York
May 9 St David’s Hall, Cardiff
May 11 Forum, Bath
May 12 Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
May 14 Philharmonic, Liverpool
May 15 Symphony Hall, Birmingham
May 16 Royal Albert Hall, London
May 18 G Live, Guilford
May 19 Corn Exchange, Cambridge
May 20 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Love & Money 2023 European Tour Dates
April 11 Torwar, Warsaw, Poland
April 12 Gdynia Arena, Gdynia, Poland
April 14 Hala Stulecia, Wroctaw, Poland
April 15 Theater Am Aegi, Hannover, Germany
April 17 Le Carre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
April 18 Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
April 19 Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
April 20 Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany
April 22 Emsland Arena, Lingen, Germany
April 23 Palladium, Cologne, Germany
April 24 Cirque Royal, Brussels, Belgium
April 26 L’Olympia, Paris, France
April 28 Haus Auensee, Leipzig, Germany
April 29 Isar Philharmonie, Munich, Germany
April 30 Jazz & Blues Wendelstein Open Festival, Germany