I Did Not Suspect Reverse Psychology
May. 29th, 2007 03:43 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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poptimistsNatasha Bedingfield - N.B.
As a rule of thumb, I don't fork out cash for a pop album until I've heard at least two good tracks from it. Some of this is a hangover from not being able to afford any albums at all a couple of years ago, but recently I've become more adventurous with my music spending. Last year, despite low expectations, I purchased Fergie's solo effort after hearing 'London Bridge' and 'Fergalicious'. It took a while for the rest of the tracks to grow on me but I was pleasantly surprised. Growing in consumer confidence and victim of a particularly vicious 'I Wanna Have Your Babies' earworm, I bought the Tash-Bed album. Worryingly, this may well have been because I thought no-one else would! I wanted to give her a chance.
The Dutchess was never going to sound much different to the Black Eyed Peas' brand of appealingly dumb R'n'B - but what to expect from N.B.? What genre does Natasha Bedingfield fall into? 'Mental' is one throw-away answer, but for the want of a musically descriptive term I'll plump for 'attention-seeking'. All the songs have Tash's voice right at the front of the mix - there's no escape. All the songs are about Her and how She's feeling: happy, sad, confused, bored. B-Day was a story focusing Beyoncé's relationship with (ahem) some dude, but there was plenty of acknowledgement given to the listener through various tidbits of advice ("put on your Freakum Dress" etc). Tash is having none of this 'third person' business, let alone a cogent narrative. Hey you! Listen up! It's [fanfare] NATASHA BEDINGFIELD and her spell-it-out-slowly Personality! She's even put an explanation of 'N.B.' on the inlay sleeve (including Latin pronunciation): "In present day English it means 'Pay Attention' or 'Take Notice'". LOOK AT MEEE! I'M NATASHA B! RHYMING COUPLETS ARE VERY EA-SY!
Tash's bludgeoning empowerment-by-numbers is irritating, but for some reason I desperately want to give her the benefit of the doubt. It worked for the Fergie album - could Tash grow on me in the same way? Her lobotomy-happy lyrics are certainly bonkers enough on 'Backyard': "Your lasso, my tiara, my wand, your plastic bazooka!" (scrub your minds out, she's merely reminiscing about dressing-up games with the boy next door as a kiddie) is more than a match for Fergie's genius line "I'm not going to miss you like a child misses its blanket". However Tash veers wildly back to the banal on 'Say It Again': "Cos I have so much love for you... I give you my heart...Should be so easy but my head gets in the way" We get the message! You like some bloke quite a lot, and are going to string this out for three and a half minutes. I love you, you love me, we all live in Sesame Street. Whatevs.
So things aren't looking good for Tash. But wait! I've mentioned on a couple of poptimists comments threads that I've become increasingly aware of my current music tastes slowly drifting toward the mum-pop demographic. This is due to acquiring a taste for:
- ridiculous ballads
- feeling HAPPY
- string sections
- blokes with lovely voices (eg Lovely Dan from Lovely The Feeling)
On 'When You Know You Know', Tash has certainly ticked the first three boxes and in doing so has come up with a winner. Picture Luther Vandross serenading a lucky lady with a Magic FM car bumper sticker, complete with 'brvvvlom-pom-pom, om-pom-pom' piano waltz bombast and a 'me-ee-ee aa-and Mrs, Mrs Jones' esque breakdown. It's very enjoyable, and for a split second you can forget that it's Tash's grinning mug squeezing her vocal chords till they bust. The middle-aged hopefuls on X Factor will be singing this a capella at their auditions in 3 years' time.
I know in my heart that over half the songs on N.B are bland filler. And that I don't actually like her voice. Or her face, especially when she smiles. I'm not even sure I like her anymore after the second (yes, second) secret track - a thinly disguised 'thank you message to God', yikes. But on the third listen the line 'rushed like lemmings off a cliff' crops up without warning! And there's Eve's brilliant guest rap, plus that great trance-blip background noise worthy of a Timbaland production on 'Not Givin' Up' - and I'm forced to rethink my position and give her some credit. ARGH! Goddammit Natasha, stop messing with my mind!
As a rule of thumb, I don't fork out cash for a pop album until I've heard at least two good tracks from it. Some of this is a hangover from not being able to afford any albums at all a couple of years ago, but recently I've become more adventurous with my music spending. Last year, despite low expectations, I purchased Fergie's solo effort after hearing 'London Bridge' and 'Fergalicious'. It took a while for the rest of the tracks to grow on me but I was pleasantly surprised. Growing in consumer confidence and victim of a particularly vicious 'I Wanna Have Your Babies' earworm, I bought the Tash-Bed album. Worryingly, this may well have been because I thought no-one else would! I wanted to give her a chance.
The Dutchess was never going to sound much different to the Black Eyed Peas' brand of appealingly dumb R'n'B - but what to expect from N.B.? What genre does Natasha Bedingfield fall into? 'Mental' is one throw-away answer, but for the want of a musically descriptive term I'll plump for 'attention-seeking'. All the songs have Tash's voice right at the front of the mix - there's no escape. All the songs are about Her and how She's feeling: happy, sad, confused, bored. B-Day was a story focusing Beyoncé's relationship with (ahem) some dude, but there was plenty of acknowledgement given to the listener through various tidbits of advice ("put on your Freakum Dress" etc). Tash is having none of this 'third person' business, let alone a cogent narrative. Hey you! Listen up! It's [fanfare] NATASHA BEDINGFIELD and her spell-it-out-slowly Personality! She's even put an explanation of 'N.B.' on the inlay sleeve (including Latin pronunciation): "In present day English it means 'Pay Attention' or 'Take Notice'". LOOK AT MEEE! I'M NATASHA B! RHYMING COUPLETS ARE VERY EA-SY!
Tash's bludgeoning empowerment-by-numbers is irritating, but for some reason I desperately want to give her the benefit of the doubt. It worked for the Fergie album - could Tash grow on me in the same way? Her lobotomy-happy lyrics are certainly bonkers enough on 'Backyard': "Your lasso, my tiara, my wand, your plastic bazooka!" (scrub your minds out, she's merely reminiscing about dressing-up games with the boy next door as a kiddie) is more than a match for Fergie's genius line "I'm not going to miss you like a child misses its blanket". However Tash veers wildly back to the banal on 'Say It Again': "Cos I have so much love for you... I give you my heart...Should be so easy but my head gets in the way" We get the message! You like some bloke quite a lot, and are going to string this out for three and a half minutes. I love you, you love me, we all live in Sesame Street. Whatevs.So things aren't looking good for Tash. But wait! I've mentioned on a couple of poptimists comments threads that I've become increasingly aware of my current music tastes slowly drifting toward the mum-pop demographic. This is due to acquiring a taste for:
- ridiculous ballads
- feeling HAPPY
- string sections
- blokes with lovely voices (eg Lovely Dan from Lovely The Feeling)
On 'When You Know You Know', Tash has certainly ticked the first three boxes and in doing so has come up with a winner. Picture Luther Vandross serenading a lucky lady with a Magic FM car bumper sticker, complete with 'brvvvlom-pom-pom, om-pom-pom' piano waltz bombast and a 'me-ee-ee aa-and Mrs, Mrs Jones' esque breakdown. It's very enjoyable, and for a split second you can forget that it's Tash's grinning mug squeezing her vocal chords till they bust. The middle-aged hopefuls on X Factor will be singing this a capella at their auditions in 3 years' time.
I know in my heart that over half the songs on N.B are bland filler. And that I don't actually like her voice. Or her face, especially when she smiles. I'm not even sure I like her anymore after the second (yes, second) secret track - a thinly disguised 'thank you message to God', yikes. But on the third listen the line 'rushed like lemmings off a cliff' crops up without warning! And there's Eve's brilliant guest rap, plus that great trance-blip background noise worthy of a Timbaland production on 'Not Givin' Up' - and I'm forced to rethink my position and give her some credit. ARGH! Goddammit Natasha, stop messing with my mind!
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Re: NB vs. Alanis
Date: 2007-05-29 06:35 pm (UTC)Fall Out Boy just hope your new boyfriend will have a car crash really soon.