White Lilies Island - Natalie Imbruglia (Jeremy)
When you saw Natalie Imbruglia’s name, you immediately thought of “Torn” didn’t you?
That’s okay. Her version of that song is great, but it was a cover of an Ednaswap song that had been written for another artist. We always remember and celebrate the biggest hits, but one of my goals with writing here is to bring attention to music that has either not stayed in the public consciousness (like The Lonesome Jubilee) or music that never got it’s due. And that’s definitely true of Natalie Imbruglia’s White Lilies Island.
Listening to this record again now, it sounds remarkably up-to-date. The only thing about it that feels 22-years-old is the fact that I was 21 when I discovered it. Working at the Macy’s Men’s Store at the Beverly Center in West Hollywood, failing to sell Tommy Hilfiger and Nautica when Calvin Klein was eight feet away and listening to the same mix tape they played on the intercom all summer long. There are only two songs I remember from it, “Wrong Impression” by Natalie and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” by Kylie Minogue. Ironically, both pint-sized, gorgeous, talented Aussies… and I went to Amoeba and bought both those records. A little out of place amongst what I usually listened to, but both brilliant pop records.
One of the things that hurt this record, no fault of Natalie’s, is the record’s inclusion in Sony’s attempt to keep you from copying their CDs and installing software on your computer (you can read more about it here). Remember, 2001 was the peak of Napster-mania or Napster-gate, however you want to look at it.
Digging deeper into this record, I had to look up the names of the producers, but all have pretty impressive resumes:
Phil Thornalley – produced Pornography by the Cure and briefly played bass for them. He’s worked with a lot of top pop acts from the 80s to today.
Ian Stanley – played in Tears for Fears and co-wrote a lot of their songs. He has also worked with artists like the Pretenders.
Pascal Gabriel – Worked with Dido, Kylie Minogue, Debbie Harry and Siouxsie Sioux to name a few.
Gary Clark – co-wrote the songs on White Lilies Island with Natalie and has a pretty storied career as both an artist and producer. If you’re interested in learning more about these folks, I’d look them up on Discogs.
The list of session players that played on the record is impressive as well (you can see them here).
If had to describe this record in one word, it’d be “tasteful”. As a songwriter, I appreciate all the subtle details, but perhaps that’s why records like this get lost among the music listening public. It sold a million albums worldwide, which any artist will tell you is very respectable, but it peaked at #3 in Australia and only went Gold there and in the UK. I bought a copy and convinced my mom to buy a copy, I guess that’s something.
The production, songwriting and mixing is top notch. There were multiple mixers including Andy Wallace on two songs. All the little touches… take for example, “Wrong Impression”:
Starting with the strings (99% likely these are synth strings), the single note guitar melody contrasting with the slide, then everything pulls back a moment for Natalie’s voice and acoustic guitar to shine, bringing everything back, then pulling back again before it’s a full band again. It’s a full minute before the chorus comes in but it really feels like a lot less. Then, the getting rarer post-chorus, letting the track breathe some before she kicks back into verse two at 1:30. The whole tune is 4:20 but it really feels like it didn’t last 3:00. It’s just masterfully constructed without losing the emotional impact of the chord progression, slide guitar and Natalies voice. Which, by the way, maybe she’s not Adele, but she’s got one of the better voices of the 1990s.
The highest praise I can give the record is that not one note was played or sang that didn’t demand to be played. You can tell great care was paid to tones, space, and delivering the emotions that she was trying to communicate. Again, perhaps this is where it fell short. These are intelligent pop lyrics, but she’s not Bob Dylan. She’s a great singer, but she’s not Adele. And, maybe I’m wrong here because I didn’t research this too deep, but I’ve never seen her trying to sex herself up. She’s beautiful, no doubt, but in a time of Sheryl Crow, Britney Spears, Christina Augilera, etc., she never traded on her beauty in order to sell records or get plays on MTV. “Torn” was shown a lot, but I don’t think anyone would say that was a sexy video. She’s cute, the video is cute, but it’s not “Baby, One More Time”.
I absolutely love this record. It definitely pulls up feelings that I haven’t felt in a long time. I was young, optimistic and while I’ve always fought the blues, I had hope in what the future held for me. I don’t think Natalie’s hurting for cash, but I wish she’d gotten more love for this record. Go check it out.