Customer Reviews

Counting Down the Days

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Apparently married life suits Natalie Imbruglia.

After getting married in 2003 to the Silverchair frontman, the Australian pop singer/actress seems much happier and more secure. The evidence: "Counting Down the Days," her third album. Apparently the child-voiced singer is no longer "Torn," as she was in her debut, but is now "Satisfied."

"Starting today/I'm not gonna waste another moment/Even if I had had the chance before/I would have blown it," she sings at the start of the album, over a simple, upbeat little pop tune that is half keyboard, half acoustic guitar. That note carries over to songs where she talks a lot about home, "falling apart together," and the loneliness of long-distance relationships.

Those songs give Imbruglia's music a more , not the sort of "I met a guy and I'm crazy about him" love songs. The exception is "Shiver," a catchy song obviously destined for singledom. "Cause I shiver/I just break up/When I'm near you/It all gets out of hand." Catchy, yet rather trite.

Not every song focuses on marital bliss, however. "Satisfied" exposes worries about the future: "This knot could come undone/no matter how we try to keep it tied," she sings over a deceptively perky pop backdrop. Well, I gotta admit, who likes an all-happy collection of love songs?

It must count for something that the producer for Blur and the Doves, Ben Hillier, did work on "Counting Down the Days." The pop songs here tend to stick to ordinary guitar riffs, many of them acoustic-based -- a nice change of pace from the majority of light pop. Additionally, they are given some bells, organs and electronic flourishes.

Imbruglia's voice hasn't changed too much -- she still has that girlish Kylie-Minogue kind of voice. Not much of a range, but not unpleasant to the ear. She's able to carry off most of the songs here, though the writing descends to unpleasantly gooey in places. "You talk so much sense/when you're sleeping"? Adoring-the-sleeping-lover songs are overdone enough, without a line like that.

Expect a happier -- yet slightly insecure -- Natalie Imbruglia in "Counting Down the Days." Has several writing weaknesses, but a pleasant enough listen.

I think this is the weakest of her three albums. I was not as impressed and felt she plays it more "safe" on this album. I would recommend her first album way before this one!

Of course "Left of the Middle" was a hard act to follow, with songs like "One More Addiction" and "Leave Me Alone." Not to mention "Torn," which is a little lightweight and was played to death on the video stations, but it was still a great song. There's nothing close to that on this CD. If you like Natalie you'll appreciate having more of her music. But if you're like me, none of these songs will be playing in your head the way the ones on "Left of the Middle" still are. She has a couple of other CDs out, and I will be a dutiful fan and buy them. Hopefully they're better.

The album itself could have been a bit smoother but all in all much better than her 2nd album (White Lilies Island); and it's got a better bland of rhythm on it.

That said, I think Natalie should have took the chance in getting it promoted over the sea to the U.S; like she did her on her previous albums. She seemed to have turned her back on her fan club (I'm not included) which is the wrong way to go, if you really want people to take you seriously; and someone needs to tell Natalie Jane Imbruglia, that it's more to America than just the sunny coast of Los Angeles California and the tall towers of New York City. She should have taken her first tour in the U.S based on the success of her first album.

So as for Nat, she's more of a "what if" person. We won't really know how good she could have done if she would have tried a bit harder and, didn't take her fans in America for granted.

Some of the best songs of the album is: Starting Today,Shiver and Perfectly.