FFWD Weekly
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| CD REVIEW NATALIE IMBRUGLIA · Hit single "Torn" mixed by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) has sold 1.8 million copies and is one of the two album songs she did not write. · 23-year-old former actor from Aussie soap Neighbours. Good grief, just when you wonder if we can handle another Mila Jovovich or Vanessa Paradis or - heaven forbid - Kylie Minogue, we get another foreign actress or model trying to grab a hold of music in America. Who has made a successful transition from acting or modeling to music? (I mean, beyond Alyssa Milano, who eerily knocked the socks off Japan.) Natalie Imbruglia has made the transition and although she is not particularly inventive, her album is a graceful entry. Left of the Middle is like a compilation of recent Top 40 songs Imbruglia has rewritten and reworked. While most of the material lacks originality (you can tell who she is a fan of, as in the Portishead rip-off "Leave Me Alone"), she has excelled in putting together a radio friendly album. Flaws - such as the bizarre lyric "Think of all the bubbles of love we made" - aren't too hard to overlook in light of pleasant melodies which float through the album. Natalie Imbruglia may not be a great ingenue , but Left of the Middle is a worthy introduction nonetheless. 3/5 Aubrey McInnis |