Every day's a school day with Katie Melua. "There are nine million bicycles in Beijing", apparently. "That's a fact, it's a thing we can't deny" she sings with the self-assurance of one who's flown over to China and counted the things.
Interesting educational facts aside, this is exactly what you'd expect from a Katie Melua single - a pretty little ballad that's nice, sweet and polite. There's even some kind of flute, which lends it a warm Christmassy feeling - albeit a few months too early.
The only trouble is that there's absolutely no passion, no soul and no excitement to be found here. Obviously the millions and millions of people who bought Call Off The Search will lap this up and no doubt it'll be incredibly successful. Yet all good music should provoke some sort of emotion, and this provokes none whatsoever. That won't stop it from being inescapable for the next few months however.
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