A cracking artist.

It would be easy to dismiss Miss Umbruglia as yet another Australian soap opera babe with a need to try and have a music career. She started her career as an actress on the same Melbourne based soap as Kylie Minogue. Kylie has a huge army of fans and I cannot help thinking that this is largely due to her longevity, being the first to do it and the fact that she has a huge gay following. For me, Natalie is infinitely more talented with a range of interesting and artistic songs that are not as limited as exploring and elevating her image. She is interested in exploring human emotion in her songs and her videos are delightful little film noirs. Her voice has a bell like clarity and beauty and she explores a range of musical genre's aswell as giving a few new techniques a try in her music, and it all works! She is the very beautiful girl in the loreal ads if you don't know her (the one with dark hair, big beautiful eyes and the unmistakable Aussy accent!). If you didn't know she was a chantuese than give her a try, you will not be dissapointed!.

More than just "Torn," but.......

It is beginning to irritate me that the pop label is being frivolously slapped onto any and every item of music that contains even the smallest hint of giddiness or fun.....like all genres, pop is more complex than that.....I will succumb to Steven Mirkin's basically-true statement, but deeming Lil' Kim's gritty "How Many Licks?" (or ANY Lil' Kim tune, for that matter) as a quote-unquote 'flaccid pop confection,' as critic Lizz Mendez Berry did, is ludicrous. Miss Imbruglia's music almost falls into the same category, lying somewhere comfortably in between genres. Soothing contemporary adult pop is what comes to mind when I hear 'Left Of The Middle'-heavily lacking the cavity-inducing, saccharine nature of, say, Hilary Duff, but also lacking the solid, mature sound of Sting or Annie Lennox. Regardless, 'Left Of The Middle' is a pleasant listen for the most part-don't expect to find anything better than the radio smash "Torn," but that doesn't mean there is nothing else here to be enjoyed. Mirkin is correct in saying nothing else on Natalie's debut quite matches the opener-the track that comes closest is the beautiful "Smoke," which my mother prefers over "Torn." Its lyrics are passionately symbolic, and the melody is darn catchy to boot. Like "Torn," it has a gentle, harmonious nature that comes off as very easy on the ears and yet can get your emotions going. "Leave Me Alone" is an interesting little ditty, which sounds as though it's been ripped right out of a Dick Tracy soundtrack. I've noticed that some reviewers adore it, but it is very much an acquired taste and may offend some with its bizarre, old-fashioned, simplistic sound. It's easy-almost too easy-to compare Imbruglia to Kylie Minogue for a few reasons-her sugary, breathy vocals and bony frame aside, other than "Torn," Natalie received little recognition for her work in the U.S., but became a smash overseas. So no, we didn't get to hear quite as much of her material as we could have-America has a habit of more rapidly introducing new artists, while simultaneously stubbornly assuring the continued success of the musical products they still feel too confident about *cough*Britney Spears*cough*Hilary Duff*cough*. It deserves more attention than it got, and "Torn" isn't the only good song-but Natalie still needs to rework her material before she can get herself acclaimed outside Europe as something more than a one-hit wonder.

natalie! good job!

I absolutly love this album. I will give you an perscription of every song, the best way I can:



1. Torn: The song everybody knows as the perfect pop song. Does not matter if you like the other material on the album: Torn is enough to satisfy you even if you don't like left of the middle.



2. One more addiction: Good lyrics, but some power is missing in this song. It dissapointed me, because I expacted something like torn, and One more addiction was very differend.



3. Big mistake: This is one of the best songs ever. Probably the best song after torn. It is very rocky, and somewhat Alanis-a-like, but it remains extremly good. The video is awesome aswell.



4. Leave me alone: It is suprisingly differend from the first 3 songs. A very paranoid song, but it has good lyrics and a powerfull, catchy tune at the chorus.



5. Wishing I was there: It is a crossfade between torn and big mistake. It was a top 40 song, just like torn. The opening sound always scares me, because it is so loud. The rest of the song is okay.



6. Smoke: This is one of the best songs you can ever hear. The piano is wonderfull, and the opening sound is calm. However, it is a song you really need to ''listen'' to. It is not a song you should put on when cleaning the house. The lyrics are about a childhood abuse, but not Natalie's own.



7. Pigeons and crumbs: This is the perfect song to put up when you can't sleep, and not because it is boring, no, because it is very dreamy and gives you a calm feeling. Reminds me of a christmas song though. Lyrics are fun.



8. Don't you think?: One of the most rockiest songs of the album. Not one of my favorites, but the lyrics really get to you. It wakes you up after Pigeons and the Crumbs though. I normally skip ''don't you think''.



9. Impressed: Love this one! The opening tune is very addicting, and continues the whole song, except for the end. I don't like the end, because the rhythem is gone. She sings somewhat acoustic then. I think they should have left that out of the song, but the song remains good. It is very differend from the other songs. Some lyrics may seem strange at first, but they are about a place where she use to go out. Like: ice cream beauty means a beautifull girl witch al boys like.



10.Intuition: Very Alanis-a-like. Does not sound like Natalie at all in the chorus. Lyrics are really good though and they are very personal. They are about Natalie's choices in life.



11.City: She wrote this one when she was very depressed. This reflects in the tune and the lyrics of the song very much. It makes you feel like you want to be there with her when she says: ''Step inside'', you would want to go straight with her. However, it gets boring afer listening to it to much, and it lasts like 9 minutes. 5 minutes are empty at the end.



12.Left of the middle: Starts of with Natalie's voice straight away. A good acoustic song, but the lyrics don't make sense to me. It's kind of a sad song.



She has released White Lilies Island what I think is not as good as Left of the middle. If you don't have Left of the middle, go buy it. You will not regret it, promise. Soon she will release a third record, named Counting down the days. Lead single will be called Shiver. It will be released in march, 2005. Some tracks could already be previewed. I hope her third album will be very left of the middle-a-like.