Underwater Love (Smoke City song)

"Underwater Love"
One of Jive Records UK editions (1997)
Single by Smoke City
Released	1995/1997
Recorded	1994
Genre	trip hop Acid jazz bossa nova
Label	Ritas Records, Jive Records
Songwriter(s)	Nina Miranda, Marc Brown
Producer(s)	Marc Brown, Nina Miranda, Mike Peden, Chris Franck

"Underwater Love" is a 1997 song by the English band, Smoke City. First released in 1994, the song did not receive recognition until its appearance in a Levi's commercial, upon which it was positively received critically and charted in ten countries.

The Brazilian inspired track was written by two of the band members who were admirers of 1970s funk, Santana and Gilberto Gil. The song 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. The song's writers were credited as former school friends Miranda and programmer Marc Brown. Miranda and Brown were again credited as producers together with Mike Peden and band member Chris Franck. It was first recorded in 1994, and released in 1995 via Ritas Records, the song became a hit after being used in a commercial for Levi's jeans. Prior to this, it had been featured on the Fourth & Broadway/Island compilation "The Rebirth Of Cool Six". Lead singer Nina Miranda, who was living in Brazil at the time, was asked to return to London to discuss signing the project. 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". Upon release, in 1997, the song made the charts in ten countries. Underwater Love was included on the band's debut album which was titled "Flying Away".

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

New Musical Express commended its mixture of "dub and Brazilian touches and healthy helpings of sleaze", 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". 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".