Always one to give an artiste a fair chance --- especially if they're a pretty girl; see my doomed review of Pixie Lott's second album a while back --- I heard one song off this album (a single) and thought the eternal thought: I wonder if the rest is as good as that? The song, “Soulmate”, was in fact so good that I was really impressed with it and hoped that there would indeed be percentage for me in buying the album. And so I did. But was sorely disappointed, as you can guess, otherwise it would not have ended up here.
N.B --- Natasha Bedingfield --- 2007 (Phonogenic)
Not released in the USA, at least in this form, and with good reason I think, this was the second album for the sister of singer/songwriter Daniel Bedingfield, and would in fact result in her fame and popularity eclipsing his. Her first album, “Unwritten”, had been well received, though I haven't personally heard it; this was not so much so. For my money, the only decent track on it --- and it's streets ahead of anything else on the album --- is the aforementioned “Soulmate”, a lovely, haunting ballad that gave her chart success. Well, there is one other...
The opener though, “How do you do”, despite having a certain Waits charm about the brass and the percussion, is quite weak
and the other single, “I wanna have your babies” is basic pop/r&b boredom
“Pirate bones” is okay, but doesn't live up to its interesting title
“Tricky angel” starts off quite well, nice bassline, but then more or less degenerates into basic pop
“No more what ifs” could have been a good song, but falls far short
It takes the genius of Diane Warren to lift this album out of the ordinary, with the lovely “Still here”
But then you have something like “Smell the roses” to close what is a very weak album overall.
To be fair to her, at least Natasha does co-write the lion's share of the music on this album, and for that she has to be commended, but her writing (or co-writing, as it were) is just not up to scratch. Either that, or the writers she collaborates with aren't that great. Hard to say, as there isn't one song on the album written solo by her. I suppose I should not have expected all that much: it's generic pop after all, hardly the sort of thing I would normally listen to, but when I heard “Soulmate” I had such high hopes.
In the end, all I can say about this album is “N.B: do not bother”. Sorry for the obvious pun, but it fits in well with how I felt about this album, having struggled through it.