we fall out then we fall back in
(or: december 10’s honey from the hive)
posted at 8:55 am by brandon in sweet you rock and sweet you roll
Natasha Bedingfield — “Little Too Much” (from Strip Me
Tuesday, we heard from her brother Daniel, and today, it’s Natasha’s turn: I fear it’s going to get buried in the mind-blowing crush of late-year albums currently jockeying for position on the record store’s new release wall — not quite sure why they didn’t hold this until February or March, particularly since top 40 radio is thus far cool toward the lovely lead single — but I spun Natty’s brand new CD twice straight through today and found it to be ravishingly terrific, a wondrous whale of a pop record. (A quick scan of the behind-the-scenes credits reveals a cadre of creative aces — John Shanks, Ryan Tedder, and the divine Danielle Brisebois, among them — whose sonic fingerprints on this material are quite easy to identify in retrospect.) “Too Much,” the record’s dynamite opening track, handily sets the tone for Strip — in short, love is all there is, and it’s worth the risk every time — and creates a theme for Bedingfield to explore fully for the remainder. She’s battling divas at both poles of the pop spectrum, with Rihanna (back to her loud and rowdy roots) at one end and La Swift (so pure, it floats) at the other; time will soon tell just how smart Bedingfield and company were to play this one straight down the middle.
