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At first listen, N.B. sounds creepy. But ignore the lyrics, surrender yourself to the joys of pop songwriting and N.B. seems to approach perfection.
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The album has an undeniable flip-flop feel throughout; like the unplugged soul-chick hoedown Beyoncé tried to conjure at the end of the "Irreplaceable" video.
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Bedingfield's second record is slight but filled with hooky, crisply produced songs that sound great on a sunny day.
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Bedingfield’s second U.S. release sticks mostly to love odes and peppy self-help bromides, which occasionally veer close to Colbie Caillat’s lake of goop. It would be irksome if not for the uniformly strong pop and R&B songcraft.
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Entertainment WeeklyBeyond the well-crafted melodies of songs like 'Soulmate,' 'Put Your Arms Around Me,' and 'Piece of Your Heart'--Which all have solid singke potential--the highly confessional lyrics, co-written by Bedingfield, are often too dear-diary to resonate. [25 Jan 2008, p.68]
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There's no "Babies" here, which is really too bad--as awkward as the song is, it fleshes out Bedingfield's vision better than Jerkins' Mary J. Bligean "Angel" or Rotem's Fergilicious "Piece of Your Heart." ("Tricky Angel," the most adventurous club track on "N.B.," is also absent.) Of the new material, the self-empowerment anthems "Freckles" and "Happy" show Bedingfield's best side.
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Natasha Bedingfield is a genuine pop talent who often flashes hints of a greater than average ambition that could turn her into something more substantial than the likes of Rhianna, but the awkwardly assembled Pocketful of Sunshine feels inorganic in a way that Unwritten did not, less personal and more vetted by various A&R executives.
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It's good clean fun, entertaining and inoffensive.
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She sings about the minutiae of modern relationships from a feminine perspective, but a healthy dose of self-awareness regarding the archetypes she plays with and some jolly-hockey-sticks humour prevent her from slipping into Bridget Jones territory.
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Nat Bed's second has nothing as catchy as 'Unwritten', the tunes are on the airy-fairy side of breezy, and the lyrics on the naff side of plain. But 'Smell the Roses' is a turbulent little pop symphony, and 'When You Know You Know' is sinuous soul that speaks well of her extended sojourn in LA studios.
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Honest emotions become sentimentality, as Bedingfield is constantly singing about herself rather than as herself.
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The packaging in which she wraps her openhearted thoughts makes Sunshine a decent little pop record.
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Even doing her humble bit, she yells in your ear.
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Despite some attempts at quasi-uplift ('Freckles') and childhood nostalgia ('Backyard'), there's little here that's likely to reprise the slow-burning success of that inspirational smash ['Unwritten'].
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 22
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Mixed: 2 out of 22
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Negative: 3 out of 22
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RicardoAJan 25, 2008Can't believe this kind of boring pap is still being released in the 21st Century.
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MichalV.Jan 23, 2008
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Maikv.Jan 22, 2008