If there's one thing that Natasha Bedingfield's music has taught us, it's to love who you are and be yourself. Her songs have inspired us all to be better people, whether it's discovering your own personal "Pocketful Of Sunshine" or knowing that our paths are still "Unwritten." Natasha Bedingfield is the type of artist who makes inspirational music that makes you feel like you have a friend looking out for you. However, the time has come for us to advise our friend that the road she's heading on is quite devoid of sunshine and pretty much predetermined.
On her third US release, Strip Me, Natasha makes the fatal mistake of failing to ascend to a higher plane artistically. You might call it a "plateau." Given that her debut album, Unwritten, and her sophomore follow-up, Pocketful Of Sunshine, spawned guilty pleasure hits that hold a special place in our hearts, you would assume that Strip Me would have followed suit, but alas we wind up stuck with an album that is a regurgitation of classic Natasha Bedingfield. Where's the artistic growth?
There's a proven formula for album releases when it comes to pop music; the first album is the artist's debut, introducing them to the world (and 9 times out of 10, it's manufactured to death by the record label, but we happily eat it up anyway), the follow-up album usually secures the aforementioned artist's place in the music industry and the third album is a statement of who the artist is and where they're heading throughout the rest of their potentially long career.
So if Strip Me is Natasha's statement, then what does it tell us? That she's really into regressing and churning out the same song with a different title over and over again; a new shade of lipstick on the same old pig.
Instead ripping this album a new one, let's focus on the few (very few) high points/standout tracks.
Continue reading "A swing and a miss by Natasha Bedingfield on new album Strip Me " »


