•
Rating:
After the release of the very first "Unwritten" in 2004, Bedingfield, with sincere and passionate music, found herself catapulted into the Olympus of divas.
"What to do now that I have sold 5 million copies? Oh yes... let's release a mediocre album with five or six mega hits that sell another one or two million copies!"
Perhaps these words crossed the mind of this 25-year-old when she recorded "N.B." in 2006. To be fair, a nice CD, but it has no difference from other pop records in circulation, you might listen to songs like "Backyard" and ask yourself, "Mmh, who is it? Britney, Christina, or Jessica?"
The album opens with a guitar solo, but just when you're about to let your guard down and enjoy this singer's new little gem, a couple of electrified sounds immediately start, making us wrinkle our noses a bit... you look back at the CD cover to see if you picked the wrong disc, and you immediately realize this dizzying change. Yes, from a simple New Zealand girl with a hippie and carefree spirit, she has transformed into one of those blue-eyed blondes who base a good part of their success on image. What a pity.
However, this opening "How Do You Do" is not completely awful, and maybe it has this effect on us because it is followed by the very delightful "I Wanna Have Your Babies" (also the first single released from the album) which makes us smile and move our heads left and right for its playful rhythm and very "cartoony" background, something you would never expect in a song.
Then the CD suddenly slows down with the advent of the third track "Soulmate" which, upon release, famous producers like Timbaland (a random nickname) didn’t think twice about calling it "One of the most memorable ballads since the beginning of the 2nd millennium"... does it really deserve such praise? I wouldn't say... yes, it's nice, catchy, but nothing so stunningly beautiful.
And neither is the following track, "Who Knows", a terrible love song that almost repeats the same rhythm and nearly exactly the same words for 3/4 times... we skip it immediately and find ourselves with "Say It Again" (which towards the end features some "uooo" and "ohyeah" from her brother Daniel, rather famous in England, a sort of nod to family fans...)
Moving forward, we find 2 tracks placed one after the other just to put the "less-better" together so as not to break the work done by those five or six good songs. We’re talking about "Pirate Bones" which does not convince even a little, and "Backyard", which we would all see well in commercials like those of Muller (surprising not to hear the phrase "Muller... do it with the flavor" at the end of the song), and the album immediately begins to lose the appeal that they try to recover with songs like "Tricky Angel", quite convincing but soon lost due to a terrible piece titled "When You Know You Know": the perfect piece to sing off-key in an unlistenable manner during a dinner for your hundred-year-old relative.
Then immediately comes the R&B/Hip-Hop note of the CD with "(No More) What Ifs", in collaboration with the famous American rapper Eve. In a similar album, let's face it, it seems put there to be discovered in a game of "Find the Intruder!"... or rather it's the immediately noticeable proof of the now instant diva sellout.
Then starts "No Givin' Up", a pro-electro piece that strangely does not turn out to be either cliché or unbearable, on the contrary, the chorus with all those "Ohohohoh" remains engraved like a fixated nail in the mind, and not bad are also the following 2 songs, "Still Here" (already heard in the soundtrack of that last wretched chapter of that wretched series of films titled "Rocky") and "Smell Roses", a hymn to happiness and optimism that, underneath, succeeds well in its intent.
Then follows a remix of her greatest commercial success, "Unwritten" (another proof of her now hyper-commercial mind: the piece was included just as Pantene chose it to be the theme for their spot), a good "Lay Down" with which the singer performed several times in Hard Rock Cafes around the world and "Loved By You", a piece of sweet and relaxing acoustic pop.
Then follows a not very successful cover of the mythical "The Scientist" by Coldplay and another remix, this time of the track that launched her into the music universe, "These Words" (I won't add more).
In short, a not bad album, but a little mediocre, much lower than the previous debut album.
A new Barbie? No, much better, but, alas, she is on the right track...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Soulmate (03:34)
Incompatible, it don't matter though
'cos someone's bound to hear my cry
Speak out if you do
You're not easy to find
Is it possible Mr. Loveable
Is already in my life?
Right in front of me
Or maybe you're in disguise
Who doesn't long for someone to hold
Who knows how to love you without being told
Somebody tell me why I'm on my own
If there's a soulmate for everyone
Here we are again, circles never end
How do I find the perfect fit
There's enough for everyone
But I'm still waiting in line
Who doesn't long for someone to hold
Who knows how to love you without being told
Somebody tell me why I'm on my own
If there's a soulmate for everyone
If there's a soulmate for everyone
Most relationships seem so transitory
They're all good but not the permanent one
Who doesn't long for someone to hold
Who knows how to love you without being told
Somebody tell me why I'm on my own
If there's a soulmate for everyone
Who doesn't long for someone to hold
Who knows how to love you without being told
Somebody tell me why I'm on my own
If there's a soulmate for everyone
If there's a soulmate for everyone
06 Pirate Bones (03:50)
What if I squeeze myself into any shape?
And, I still don't fit
What if I bend myself so much that I break?
And, I can't mend it
What if I burn so bright that the fire goes out?
And I can't stay lit
What's the point in it?
I could get good at crying crocodile tears
Just to get along
I could carry on telling you what you want to hear
'til my voice is gone
But if I finally get to the place that I think is home
And I don't belong
What's the point in it?
Where's the benefit?
When I'm gaining all but I'm losing it
It's not worth having
If it's too much to hold
You can dig so deep
That you're left with a hole
Thirsty in the desert with a bag full of gold
Don't wanna end up like pirate bones
What I thought was treasure
Is just a pile of stones
I might have the treasure
But, I'd be lying alone
Just a pile of pirate bones
If I forfeit my soul it ain't worth having
If it's something I stole it ain't worth having
What if I stake everything I am on a dream?
And, it's counterfeit
If I reach the end that justifies the means?
Could I live with it?
And if it's true that I having too much of any good thing
Can only make me sick
What's the point in it?
Where's the benefit?
When I'm gaining all but I'm losing it
It's not worth having
If it's too much to hold
You can dig so deep
That you're left with a hole
Thirsty in the desert with a bag full of gold
Don't wanna end up like pirate bones
What I thought was treasure
Is just a pile of stones
I might have the treasure
But, I'd be lying alone
Just a pile of pirate bones
Pirate bones
If I forfeit my soul it ain't worth having
If it's something I stole it ain't worth having
It's not worth that much to me
If losing out is what it means
To swim in shallow victory is empty (empty)
It's just not worth the prize
It's only a fool's paradise
If it's draining every drop of life
'til I'm dry like pirate bones
(It's not worth having)
IIt's not worth having
If it's too much to hold
You can dig so deep
That you're left with a hole
Thirsty in the desert with a bag full of gold
Don't wanna end up like pirate bones
What I thought was treasure
Is just a pile of stones
I might have the treasure
But, I'd be lying alone
Just a pile of pirate bones
(If I forfeit my soul)
If I forfeit my soul it ain't worth having
If its something I stole it ain't worth having
(Pirate bones)
Pirate bones
(While the thought was treasures)
(Just a pile of stones)
Pirate bones
07 Backyard (03:27)
It's been too long
Don't think I've seen you smile
At me for quite a while
And we're too busy doing things
We haven't noticed what's missing
Where's the fun we used to have?
My childish ways and your sarcasm
Silly jokes and fairy tales
Where did we leave them?
Lost in the backyard
Your lasso
My tiara
My wand
Your plastic bazooka
Why can't we be how we were
In the backyard
Your cowboy hat
My tutu
You hide and seek
I catch you
Why can't we be how we were
In the backyard
In the backyard
Simple days of hand in hand
And drawing our names in the sand
Somehow life just complicates
Our buried treasure it just waits
Lost
In the backyard
Your lasso
My tiara
My wand
Your plastic bazooka
Why can't we be how we were
In the backyard
Your cowboy hat
My tutu
You hide and seek
I catch you
Why can't we be how we were
In the backyard
In the backyard
Lost you in the backyard
In the backyard
You can still meet me in the garden
You and I
And hide behind the rosebed
You and I
You and I
Lost in the backyard
Again
Your lasso
My tiara
My wand
Your plastic bazooka
Why can't we be how we were
In the backyard
Your cowboy hat
My tutu
You hide and seek
I catch you
Why can't we be how we were
In the backyard
In the backyard
08 Tricky Angel (03:14)
I like to think I know how to look out for myself
I've got ways and means to filter wrong guys out
When the B.S. meter is slamming into the red
I just walk away 'cause I'm not interested
I've never met a boy who didn't hit on me
I did not suspect reverse psychology
You know, if you'd knocked I wouldn't have let you in
How'd you get the code to my security system
I think some tricky angel
Just knocked me on the head
Made me look at you different
Made me see some sense
Tricky angel got me falling
Without my consent
And I'm so glad he did
'cause I didn't know you were heaven sent
I was writing you off, making a huge mistake
His intervention rescued us from fate
I don't know how, but somehow you got me down
You just broke into me and ignored that it wasn't allowed
Someone's being sneaky, sneaky
'cause I'm so hard to please
I was so picky, picky
So cupid take the boxes for me
I think some tricky angel
Just knocked me on the head
Made me look at you different
Made me see some sense
Tricky angel got me falling
Without my consent
And I'm so glad he did
'cause I didn't know you were heaven sent
Under the radar
You slipped into my heart
You gave me a taste for
What I didn't know that I wanted
When I wasn't looking
You did what I least expected
Tiptoed in while I was sleeping
And I'm wide awake now
I think some tricky angel
Just knocked me on the head
Made me look at you different
Made me see some sense
Tricky angel got me falling
Without my consent
And I'm so glad he did
'cause I didn't know you were heaven sent
I think some tricky angel
Just knocked me on the head
Made me look at you different
Made me see some sense
Tricky angel got me falling
Without my consent
And I'm so glad he did
'cause I didn't know you were heaven sent
Tricky angel got me falling
And I'm so glad he did
11 (No More) What Ifs (04:08)
All the could-be's buzzin' 'round
My mind a thousand-timely cloud
And now I can not see the sun
All the worries on my list
Rush like lamings off a cliff
I'm powerless to save even one
All my friends tell me I'm thinking too much
It's not over 'til it's over
Because today is trouble enough
Live tomorrow, 'til tomorrow
I'm not jinxing what could be
Second guessing what I see
There is you and there is me
No what if's
My crossing fingers knocking wood
'cause worrying about we could
Spoil the moment when it's good
No more what ifs
Could-be's
One day's
If only's
That intro's looping on and on
Don't really get to feel the song
When it's only playing in my head
If I don't listen with my heart
Trust my instincts from the start
Then I'm as done, as done can get
So I'm not
I'm not jinxing what could be
Second guessing what I see
There is you and there is me
No what if's
My crossing fingers knocking wood
'cause worrying about we could
Spoil the moment when it's good
No more what ifs
Could-be's
One day's
If only's
If the sky falls down
What if it don't work out
What if a black cat crosses my path
Does that mean you and me, we're not gonna last?
What if Mr Right turns out to be wrong?
What if there's no happy ending for this song
What if the one for me is the one that's she's with
When my heart feels love, or will my head believes it?
I'm thinking too much.
It's not over 'til it's over
'cause today is trouble enough
Live tomorrow, 'til tomorrow
I'm not jinxing what could be
Second guessing what I see
There is you and there is me
No what if's
My crossing fingers knocking wood
'cause worrying about we could
Spoil the moment when it's good
No more what ifs
Could-be's
One day's
If only's
Loading comments slowly
