June 28, 2007
Unwritten
In the United Kingdom, New Zealand-born Natasha Bedingfield and brother Daniel Bedingfield have seemingly taken up permanent residence at the top of the pop charts. He’s an earnest rocker with a dance music bent. She’s an altogether more exciting prospect–a singer-songwriter who refuses to sit still, charging through decadent R&B (”Single”), jittery electro-pop (”I’m A Bomb”) and first-class balladry (”I Bruise Easily”), invoking the likes of Beyonce and Gwen Stefani. And, okay, sometimes Nelly Furtado. An all-star production team, including former Robbie Williams collaborator Guy Chambers, makes for a debut that sounds like an instant greatest-hits set–just add cheekbones. –Aidin Vaziri
Atists:Â Natasha Bedingfield
Audio CD:Â Enhanced
Company: Sony (2005-08-02)
List Price:Â $18.98
Amazon Price:Â $7.93
Used Price:Â $6.58
More: continued here
One of the fundamental criticisms of New Age music is that it puts people to sleep. Here, Steven Halpern, one of the founding fathers of New Age, makes that his mission and, as you might expect, does an effective job of it. Drawing on catalog material from the early 1980s, Halpern builds an attractive collection of delicate, lighter-than-air sonic textures that nicely serves the intended purpose–to fill the silence with something prettier than white noise. Halpern does so by blending electric and acoustic piano, plus additional keyboards, to create soothing, improvisational, cloudlike musical abstractions that often convey the tranquil randomness of wind chimes in a soft breeze. The liner notes also promise your subconscious will be exposed to a series of subliminal, sleep-encouraging affirmations along the quiet, unstructured way. This may sound like so much frou-frou to the unconverted, but for anyone sincerely interested in a sleep aid, Halpern’s disc is a certified snoozer, a New Age music box. Other New Age discs may accomplish the same purpose as Sleep Soundly, but few will do it as persuasively. –Terry Wood
