Underwater Love (Smoke City song)

The Brazilian-inspired track is built upon a gentle, constant guitar strum, drums and samples, some of which are rainforest noises, others are from "Bahia Soul" by Luiz Bonfá and "Mother Popcorn" by James Brown.[5] It was written by the band's singer Nina Miranda and programmer Marc Brown, two former school friends who were admirers of 1970s funk, Santana, and Gilberto Gil.[6] Miranda and Brown were also credited as producers together with Mike Peden and band member Chris Franck.

Underwater Love was first recorded in 1994,[3] and released in 1995 via Ritas Records,[7] the song became a hit after being used in a commercial for Levi's jeans.[1][3] Prior to this, it had been featured on the Fourth & Broadway/Island compilation "The Rebirth Of Cool Six".[2] Lead singer Nina Miranda, who was living in Brazil at the time, was asked to return to London to discuss signing the project.[3] Miranda and Smoke City were later based in London, but their interests were in Brazil. Miranda was proud that they had success in Portugal as that country was "in the middle of what we're about".[8] Upon its re-release, on 31 March 1997,[2] the song made the charts in ten countries. Underwater Love was included on the band's debut album which was titled "Flying Away".[6]

Music & Media wrote that "this well-constructed alloy of dub, hip hop and jazz is sufficiently catchy in its own right, however, and would probably have become a hit even without the support of the TV ad."[9] New Musical Express commended its mixture of "dub and Brazilian touches and healthy helpings of sleaze",[7] whilst The Pitch Online called the song "a perfect reprieve from the steel bars of winter into a humid rainforest of resonating vocals and music" and praised the vocals of Nina Miranda, noting that "even better than her exotic purring of the English hook would be when she transitions to a string of spoken Portuguese without using her full singing voice".[10] In addition, Tom Bromley, author of We Could Have Been the Wombles, described the song as having "a fantastic feel: the hypnotically plucked guitar, the funky drum loop, a judicious mix of Brazilian beats and sonar bleeps, wafts of organ and hints of Herbie Hancock [are] all topped off by Nina's mesmeric vocals".[11]

The song charted internationally, with its highest peak being in the UK at number 4[1] – becoming the 14th song to enter the UK Singles Chart on the back of being featured in a Levi's advertisement and the third debut act to chart this way[2] – followed by number 18 in Norway. Further top forty placements came in Austria, with number 23, Switzerland and number 33 in the Wallonia region of Belgium. Other placings came in Australia, at number 41, the Flanders region of Belgium at number 42, number 55 in Germany, number 58 in Sweden and number 97 in the Netherlands.[4]

The music video for the song includes all three members of the band, and was directed by Tim Macmillan and John Lynch, with final production by Red Post in London.[12]

UK and European CD single[13]

1. "Underwater Love" (radio edit) – 4:00
2. "Underwater Love" (Morales Underwater Club Mix) – 9:30
3. "Underwater Love" (Voyager Remix) – 5:58
4. "Underwater Love" (album version) – 6:46
5. "Underwater Love" (Morales Salsoul Mix) – 8:18
6. "Underwater Love" (Morales Reprise) – 5:10