CASSIE ROBERTSON
Staff Writer
Natasha Bedingfield, the same United Kingdom artist who brought her hit single “Unwritten” to America, has made a huge splash with a new album released Jan. 22, “Pocket Full of Sunshine.”
Bedingfield’s new album does its title justice with its upbeat and optimistic attitude. This album is no sophomore slump for Bedingfield. It manages to stray from stereotypical love songs into an expression of true innocence. It feels like a trip back to middle school and a first kiss, but with plenty of new and interesting sounds to replenish a girl’s iPods “cute love songs” playlists.
Despite the almost-corny, happy tone of the title, Bedingfield manages to pour feeling and a dose of true joy into her 13 tracks, each of them causing the listener to perk up and bask in the upbeat, excited beats.
It is easy to recognize Bedingfield’s R&B influence mixed in with the uptempo songs. The songs also carry meaningful lyrics, singing, and Bedingfield’s soothing, soulful voice helps them impact the listener.
In the track “Piece of Your Heart,” Bedingfield pours herself into the lyrics, “When the craziness begins to get to me, just need a hand to hold, just be that somebody.”
The puppy-love feel of the lyrics is what makes the album so optimistic. She seems to believe love can fix everything when she sings, and this child-like belief is found in nearly all of the lyrics.
“Why am I making this hard on myself when there’s so many beautiful reasons I have to be happy?” Bedingfield sings optimistically in her track “Happy.” Although encouraging and hopeful, the listener can practically hear the rainbows and butterflies pouring out of the song.
But life is not always sunshine and roses. This a fact that goes unconsidered, because the album seems to purposely go out of its way to be “happy.”
Not surprisingly, Bedingfield’s soul-singer style infused with the upbeat, get-stuck-in-your-head sound of her new CD is a far cry from many of the dark albums released this year.
Its difference may be perceived by some listeners to simply be too dramatically optimistic.
A huge amount of Bedingfield’s hopefulness and belief in everything from angels to soulmates is found among her lyrics, and this dreamer’s ambitions carry her through.
The album is currently the No.1 top-selling album on iTunes, and Amazon.com praises Bedingfield for her “beach-blanket warm and blue-sky ready” style and gives her “pop-music props.”
Listeners have probably already heard Bedingfield’s fun and undeniably catchy song “Love Like This” over radio airwaves. The song features renowned hip-hop artist Sean Kingston, and it is the perfect blend of cool, sweet and charming, the kind of song best played with the windows rolled down on the highway.
Overall, Bedingfield succeeds in this album by shining through her energetic style.
Instead of bursting out singing Rihanna’s overplayed and definitely finished “Umbrella” during rainy weather, students should cheer themselves up with a dose of Bedingfield’s brilliant rays.
She may be stuck with her head in the clouds, but her “Pocketful of Sunshine” is perfect for a rainy day.
01-31-2008