Natalie Imbruglia
Firebird
BMG
Listen Below
Although its roots stretch back as far as 2006, Natalie Imbruglia’s fourth long player Come To Life wouldn’t make landfall on her native Australian shores until October 2009. Having recruited an impressive cast of writer-producers featuring the likes of Brian Eno, Ben Hillier, Gary Clark and Chris Martin (of Coldplay), the singer-songwriter expanded on an already winning AOR approach with alternative electronic textures. The result was an affair soused in an even richer, dimensional sound that should have taken Imbruglia to the next level. But, as the saying goes, the best-laid plans…
Island Records, Imbruglia’s then-record company, incredulously withheld the album from wider release outside of the Oceania territories it initially debuted in; the United Kingdom wouldn’t receive Come To Life until February 2010. What was worse than its staggered rollout? The lack of any real ground game to promote the record and its two singles, “Wild About It” and “Want.”
Imbruglia did her best to champion this project she’d sunk so much of herself into—Come To Life had been issued via Island and her own Malabar imprint. However, without the mechanisms of a major label in place to ensure its survival, her finest effort fell into obscurity.
What occurred next was a headlong plunge into a debilitating creative dry spell. In the six years following that crisis, Imbruglia kept busy with other personal and professional pursuits before returning to a drastically changed popular music landscape with Male (2015). Her only offering for Portrait Records saw Imbruglia exclusively reinterpret works from artists of the opposite sex such as Daft Punk (“Instant Crush”), Josh Pyke (“The Summer”), Neil Young (“Only Love Can Break Your Heart”), and Modern English (“I Melt with You”)—to name some.
Reviewers mostly took to the LP with affection, commending Imbruglia for her good taste and noting that her voice remained quite the effective tool. And though a year would separate Male from the small-scale European tour it spawned in April/May of 2017, she courted additional acclaim.
Buoyed by the warm reception that greeted her fifth record, Imbruglia started to consider plotting a course for her sixth album, Firebird. Her first collection of original material tendered in over a decade also marks her launch on the BMG label. Their respective commercial fortunes aside, both Come to Life and Male had Imbruglia refining her established aesthetic sensibilities while subsequently pushing them forward.
Does Firebird maintain that momentum? In a word: yes. A core tenet of Imbruglia’s artistic method is collaboration—Albert Hammond Jr., Rachel Furner, Romeo Stodhart, Caroline Watkins, Francis “Eg” White, and KT Tunstall are just some of the tunesmiths and musicians she asked along for this ride. Their contributions lend the stock on Firebird a stately polish that points to the keen songcraft essential to Imbruglia’s output since her debut album Left Of The Middle (1997). But Firebird isn’t solely a showcase for the talent onboarded—there’s a human heart to the material here.
Imbruglia’s frankness about her struggles with writer’s block—a byproduct of the chaotic industry circumstances that sidelined Come To Life—signposts that she has conquered that impediment. Her way with her pen on Firebird certainly suggests so. At 46, having become a mother in 2019, Imbruglia is a woman whose life is rife with experience of all sorts and that is expressed on the album.
From its opener (and lead single) “Build It Better,” to its closing title piece and all the selections in between, the elements of catharsis, release, reinvention, and romance suffuse their narratives. As the lead scribe on all fourteen cuts, Imbruglia’s personal touch is executed with inventive care and detail. Specifically, entries like “Maybe It’s Great,” “Change Of Heart” and “Invisible Things” evince just how well she steers clear of saccharine storytelling and opts for direct, evocative writing instead. In a true demonstration of her skill in this regard, everything contained on Firebird is cast in such a way that listeners not only connect with her, but they can also find themselves in these songs too.
But what are words without music? Imbruglia joins with Tim “myriot” Bran (of Dreadzone)—the principal producer of Firebird—in a co-production capacity to make sure that the lyrical content of the LP is supported by equally ambitious sonic backdrops. Darting between snappy soul (“Nothing Missing”), layered synth-pop (“What It Feels Like”), drive-time rock (“On My Own”) and sprawling adult contemporary ballads (“Dive to the Deep”), Imbruglia’s fealty to engaging, stylish pop is still intact.
Longtime fans familiar with the particulars of her work to date will recognize much of the sounds she employs on this album have been tapped before; this isn’t a bad thing. What is new is the freshness that permeates the overall production of Firebird. Bran and Imbruglia ensure that every programming fleck and instrumental flourish is never out of place—but nothing ever comes across as overly fussy.
Two great examples of the pair’s method manifest with “Just Like Old Times” and “Not Sorry.” The former track is dressed in spicy jazz rhythms, whereas the latter cut is a sun-dappled slice of uptempo guitar-pop—each are excellent vehicles for Imbruglia’s voice. Its emotive tincture reaches a truly resonant peak on “River,” a parcel of gospel-tinged folk that benefits from the vocal punch of Imbruglia's mid-range.
Like any album worth its salt, every composition housed on Firebird is individually compelling, but when the set is taken in its entirety, it is guaranteed to draw in and hold the attention of its audience for the duration of its run-time. Having fielded triumph and difficulty in equal measure, Imbruglia rises like the namesake of her record, stronger and more focused in her artistic aim than ever before.
Welcome back Ms. Imbruglia!
Notable Tracks: “Build It Better” | “Change of Heart” | “Just Like Old Times” | “River”
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