Wishing I Was There (White Lilies Island - Natalie Imbruglia)

Member Name: Modena

Product:	White Lilies Island - Natalie Imbruglia
Date:	11/12/01 (350 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some nice fresh tunes, good vocals, likeable artist

Disadvantages: Copyright protection software, feels like 2 albums jumbled together at times, no enhanced content.

After the successful 1998 Left Of The Middle album, ex Neighbours actress Natalie Imbruglia returns with White Lilies Island. I was a big fan of Natalie, I thought Left Of The Middle was a great album and the song Torn is one of my all time favourtie songs.

This album was launched quite silently and under a bit of a cloud, I think this (or most of this) was completed years ago (1999) and there were rumours that Natalie demanded more pay before this could be released. Anyway the album is here now, and after a quiet launch, this has all the controversy it was promising.

No not because of the excellent artistry, but because this is/was one of the first albums to be fitted with a “copyright protection” device. The copyright device on this CD is/was called “Cactus Data Shield 200” it allegedly prevents copying and ripping the CD, it didn’t stop the mp3 groups ripping it and distributing it 3 weeks before it was released, and it certainly did not stop my CD ripper.

What’s worse, many fans complained and said that they could not play it on their computers, their car CD players, their DVD players etc etc… Oh dear, so allegedly, BMG have made a u-turn and re-released it without the cactus data shield. I mean I can’t play this in car and I cannot get this onto MD to listen to, hopefully I can get an exchange.

Cactus Data Shield is also rumoured to be bad for your speakers, I mean most of the tracks sound normal except tracks 2 and 3 which sound a little sick, but apart from that everything seems to be fine, once my PC crashed when I looked at the properties of this CD, and my PC cannot play track 1 (but it is rippable), the rest is fine. What this is is simply an extra data track at the end of the CD that does something. I think BMG have got it completely wrong…

Enough of the politics, is the album any good? Was it worth the wait?

1 – That Day
“that day
, that day, what a marvelous mess, this is all that i can do,
i'm done to be me, sad, scarde, small, alone, beautiful, it's supposed to be like this
i accept everything, it's supposed to be like this”

This was the first single released, and is a kind of “Natalie is back” affair, it’s a guitar tune, which is different to the original album, it’s a calm song sung in a painfully uncalm way; a “stuttered calmness”, she seems some sort of “forget the past, everything is back” song, but of course there is some kind of deeper meaning somewhere.

2 – Beauty On The Fire
“tonight, could I be lost forever to drown, my soul in Sensory pleasure, Sensory, pleasure”

This is quite a beautiful song, not too far deviated from the first album, the atmosphere is kind of like a dreamy serene night on a desert island and is quite effective. Good sounds, very subtle.

3 – Satellite
“cause you are my satellite, so I'm trying to keep you in sight
but with all this space, can we keep it alive
so I'm asking you baby, are you coming down tonight”

It’s quite nice imagery isn’t it? Someone circling someone etc… This is a very relaxed guitary/pop song. That’s all I can say about it really, as it kind of clones itself and repeats itself over and over.

4 – Do You Love
“child, it's broke, and I feel you slipping away
child, you spoke, and the world fell silent again
do you love, do you need love?”

This sets a different more eerie/surreal tone to the album. Towards the middle of this song, it kind of changes into some wannabe grungy epic power ballad, which I have nothing against. It’s nothing startling, a good song, but just another song to me, nothing sparkling about it (rather like this opinion).

5 – Wrong Impression
“
I want you, but I want you to understand, I miss you, I love you
didn't want to leave you, with the wrong impression, didn't want to leave you, with my last confession of love”

No opinion/review of this song is gonna go without saying that this is some blatant copy of Torn, on first hearing it sounds so similar. The sounds are so similar as is the speed and the tone. The obvious question is how good is this compared to Torn, the answer is that it is not as good, why isn’t it as good? That’s difficult to answer… The sound is more beautiful/mature, lots of subtle additions too, but somehow it’s a little bland. However this is my favourite song on this album and I hope this is a release.

6 – Goodbye
“but the words won't play, and there's no easy way to say
Goodbye, Goodbye”

Very sombre (as goodbye should be), it’s quite a fresh copied song, if that makes sense, very slow, and as eerie as Natalie’s song can be. It’s not like smoke, it starts off more eerily (and throughout it is sung in a high voice) and towards the middle, guitars are added, making a little like Coldplay. This is the kind of song that if it was ever released, there’d be a good video. Nothing special, but nothing bad either.

7 – Everything Goes
“you live your life, you live like an island, satisfied, you live for the moment
here you come, you make it look easy, I bet you smile in your sleep, are you smiling at me”

This is a beautiful song, rather reminiscent of the Corrs, in fact this is a deliberate rip off isn’t it? Just without the Irish flavours and with a stronger rock flavour… It’s a good song though, unless you hate the Corrs.

8 – Hurricane
“hurricane, you pulled me out of the past
and landed me in today”

This starts with some beach sounds and Natalie’s voice a
ppears in a pretty acoustic style. Then lots of boring “still I don’t understand lines” then it gets a little more interesting with the main chorus, with some nice guitar touches etc. I think this is a fairly average song.

9 – Sunlight
“did you ever feel sunlight on your face
did you ever taste clouds, did you ever touch space”

A faster moving pop-song, with some subtle dancy elements (and nice piano strokes too), this is the kind of song that needs a dance mix. A lot of fans seem to like this, I don’t like this too much though but it does the album no harm, in fact it adds some nice variety.

10 – Talk In Tongues
“then you wake up, and tomorrow is today
and you're crying, crying like a baby, caught between the tides”

A slow rock/alternative type song, in some ways it’s like a mixture of Coldplay and someone more jazzy, can’t precisely pinpoint who though.

11 – Butterflies
“Butterflies, Butterflies
my heart will be the bridge, that you walk over”

You might have noticed that this album seems to be split into the beautiful songs and the modern rock-type songs, well this falls into the first category, this is very dreary, apart from the half-decent chorus, this is probably the weakest link. It’s getting towards the album isn’t it?

12 – Come September
“her bones will ache, her mouth will shake, and as the passion dies, her magic heart will break
she'll fly to France, cause there's no chance, no hope for Cinderella
Come September”

This falls as a cross between the rock-type and the beauty song, this really feels like a beautiful end-theme. There is nothing too good about this song, but this feels so right and it is totally enthused. One of my favourite songs on the album. The outro is also lovely and the listener feels he’s be
en on a lovely long journey…

>Cover And Inlay

Beautiful cover, it’s white with Natalie in an Elvis (Levis) tshirt and a wedding dress type thing on her lap. The inlay has lots of childy artwork and the lyrics.

>Left Of The Middle?

An obvious question is which album is better? This is a difficult question to answer, as the albums are different, yet similar in a peculiar way. I think as time goes on and a few singles are released, the case for White Lilies Island will be stronger. To me Left Of The Middle was a good album with a few great songs (Torn and Smoke in particular, I think City was another good song) but it just seemed it wasn’t Natalie in a way, she was trying to be someone else if you see what I mean, this album rids her of that (except for a few bits).

I like this album, it would make a nice Christmas present, there is nothing obviously wrong with this and there are some good songs, I am surprised at why this isn’t selling though, maybe word got around about the copyright protection. Or Natalie went for too long and her fanbase was not loyal enough or did not like the reasons for her absence.

There should be some hits from this album, it won’t be a classic, but the obvious flaws are few and far between, it’s different from the original yes, but I think Natalie Imbruglia fans will not be disappointed. Was it worth the wait? Probably not…

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