William Orbit made wonders for Madonna back in the 90’s, helping to upgrade her music through his electro-spiritual touch. He basically had her converting to electronica! Much of the progressive orientation in her music today is thanks to his influence in the production of “Ray of Light”. For the lovely Katie Melua however things do not work as they should! Even though her voice and neo-mystical lyrical themes do welcome Orbit’s touch there is something in the compositions of “The House” which objects to a happy marriage of the two. Her bohemian quirks which are cute and charming when delivered downscaled get amplified and sound pretentious and outlandish!
I saw Melua live in Sweden last month and didn’t recognise her on stage, she had gone from singer/songwriter to something of a …dancer?! Trying to pulling a Nelly Furtado, though without the assets needed for such crossover. And to top this pile of questionable creative judgements the album comes with an unbelievably horrible artwork and design! Despite being packaged in a digipak, which makes it an even bigger shame.
Everything, basically EVERYTHING about this cover is a mistake! Aesthetically and commercially. The artwork would be adequate maybe for the twenty something instalment of a cheap Celtic music compilation series, done in photoshop and sold on a gas station in the middle of nowhere, but not for a high-profile release involving William Orbit! All these give me such a headache, lucky for Katie that I’m still a sucker for those big brown eyes! 
