Strip Me

I just fell in love with Natasha Bedingfield. There I was, wandering the great expanse of YouTube, when what should I find but a message from Natasha Bedingfield about her new album! I was sold the moment she started talking about stripping down and sharing and all those sorts of wonderful things. Well, almost. I liked her music before, but it had gotten annoying and over-played. I was sold on the hope that she would sound new with this album. I clicked the first track I didn't recognise as an old song:



And I was sold. As I write this post, I'm listening to the rest of the album and hoping someone will ask me what I want for Christmas so I can tell them something other than socks for once. ("Hey, Elizabeth, what do you want for Christmas?" "Socks." "No, seriously." "I seriously want socks." Christmas comes. No socks. Fail.) The album, which is on its penultimate track right now, is incredible. I forgot that Natasha Bedingfield had so much piano in her music, actually. (I have a not-so-secret attraction to music with piano.) I used to play "Wild Horses" all the time, and I completely forgot that it was her.

I suppose I didn't fall in love with Natasha Bedingfield today. I just remembered why I had been so totally in love with her before. It's different now though. Long ago, I wasn't a musician. Inside me, I was, but I had long before shut that off. But today, I can listen to her music and realise that, hey, I want to write such beautiful, impassioned music. I want to be like her.

I wish I could write an amazing review of Strip Me, analysing every track in eloquent detail, but the truth is that I'm no music critic. This album is clearly an exposure of the soul, a sort of stripping of the facades that fill plenty of mainstream music, and it is a personal experience. That's what music is, what real music is: a personal journey the artist shares with listeners. What makes an album good, in my opinion, is honesty and sincerity, and this album lacks none. I love this album because it speaks to me. Maybe it'll speak to you too.