Review: Natalie Imbruglia - Come To Life

Natalie Imbruglia finally came back to life with her fourth studio album "Come To Life" that took her almost four years to record. After the mixed reception of her previous album "Counting Down the Days", Imbruglia took her time to face the frustration of meeting her own expectations about any future music efforts. Obviously she managed to pull herself together and revive what's left of her career. Don't get me wrong, Imbruglia has had a few major hits, but four years of silence in today's music business is equivalent to suicide.

Anyway, "Come To Life" is out there and Natalie has done a great job. After a first listen I thought that the album was full of crap and deserved to go straight to oblivion. Honestly, I was really disappointed, but second chance should always be given and this time it just clicked to me. Indeed, "Come To Life" is beautiful in any possible way, you've got the ballads, the up-beat songs and the good old semi-romantic/semi-angry-at-you tunes. Natalie is bitchy, sweet and ironical and sounds better than ever. The album has something for almost every taste, ranging from dance-driven contemplations to soulful guitar-based emotional landscapes. Furthermore Imbruglia gracefully sways between genres, leaving any false pretensions far behind.

For the track and best choice for a pilot single "Want" Natalie has worked together with Christ Martin from Coldplay. Another Chris Martin collaboration is "Lukas" that had been recorded during Coldplay' sessions for their album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" and produced by Brian Eno. Martin has also worked on the song "Fun". Imbruglia takes part in writing most of the songs on "Come To Life" and since this is her first independent release she had additional freedom on the whole recording process. Congrats, Natalie, on coming to life!

Songs to hear: "Want", "Lukas", "Fun" and "WYUT"

Personal rating: 7/10

Recommendation Weekly: Antigone

I was wondering whether this is a recommendation or a discovery, but need to hear more before I am sure it's worth becoming a full-time add to my music library. Antigone is actually no stage name, but the given name to an Australian singer-songwriter, who has dedicated her music efforts to the electronic scene. She may be a newcomer, but I am pretty sure that she is just about to be discovered and hyped. Still being criminally underrated Antigone is just months away from the growing attention to propel her into mainstream or at least let her break out from the underground. Although Antigone is no new to the whole scene, people started picking her up quite recently, which may be due to lack of decent promotion. However, her debut album "Antigoneland" is out on iTunes awaiting your vital support.