Natalie Imbruglia – Want
”Torn” was nearly 12 years ago now…
[Video][Website]
[6.31]
Matt Cibula: I love you Cathy Dennis! I love you Lisa Stansfield! I love you Kylie Minogue! I pretty much like you Natalie Imbruglia, especially in the softcore porn video!
[7]
Martin Skidmore: The opening sounds like a dancier mix of Kate Bush’s magnificent ‘Running Up That Hill’, which makes Natalie’s voice sound particularly thin and weak in comparison. Nonetheless, the beats are perky, and there is an endearingly swoony quality to the sound. Sadly, her mediocre singing lets it down.
[6]
Pete Baran: Ten out of ten for ambition; going the whole Kate Bush is a bold move (especially nicking the “Hounds Of Love” galloping backing track). But the singing sounds strained, and the chorus is weak. This is only the best single this year from a Johnny English cast member by virtue of Rowan Atkinson not releasing anything (EDIT – I forgot the Oliver Cast Recording, on which Atkinson sings “You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two”, which is better than this).
[3]
Chuck Eddy: Generic you’re-gonna-miss-me/I-wish-you-well-but-maybe-not-really post-breakup sentiments, voiced just passive-aggressively enough that you can’t tell whether the singer’s being sarcastic or not, made moderately tense by spare but propulsive production: ’80s art-disco synths that evolve from “Eye Of The Tiger” into “Running Up That Hill”; vocal echoes out of Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: It’s spooky, but not in a Kate Bush fashion, and it’s disco, but disco by other means, and neither Bush nor disco were ever this icy and bitter. Despite running out of new ways to thrill around two minutes in, it’s pretty captivating.
[8]
Kat Stevens: I’m very glad Natalie opted for this as lead single instead of “Wild About It” (a plodding pastiche of fellow-Aussie Gabriella Cilmi’s twangy knees-up ‘Sweet About Me’). “Want” is its opposite in tone – compelling, moody techno-pop that wouldn’t sound out of place mixed in somewhere on a Bpitch compilation.
[8]
John Seroff: Given the pedigree at play, I was inclined to handle this song with tongs; Imbruglia, Silverchair and Coldplay encompass a pretty strong cross-section of what I don’t want to hear more of. It’s not half as bad as I feared; “Want” is a reasonably metered don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out sniff set to chimes and ride ’em cowboy bass that would be more at home in the club than The Gap, if only barely. It’s a sort of neutered Alcazar; too oil-free and Covergirl approved to bite but driven and pretty enough to not be totally dismissed.
[5]
Michaelangelo Matos: The absolute last thing I ever expected from the who-dat-now singer of “Torn,” her one blip in the U.S.: not just a good disco record, but a great disco record; also the last thing I expected from co-writer Chris Martin. It had my ear from go, but it wasn’t till I looked at the video (Natalie video-recording herself in various states of dress and emotion) that I focused on the lyric, and everything clicked: this is a fuck-you goodbye, angry, and the gossamer-identikit pop-trance production, lovely as its details may already have been, was hiding something much richer. “I hope you get all that you want/Cause I didn’t”: chorus of the year? I’d never have figured Natalie Imbruglia would have a shot at my 2009 Top 10, but things work out funny, don’t they? Thank you, Pop.
[9]
Ramzy Alwakeel: A staggeringly powerful lead single from Imbruglia IV. The electronic production is undeniably a somewhat glossy step up, but it’s handled with a musicality that would melt Cascada at fifty paces. ‘Want’ delicately manages its emotions like Good Humor-era Saint Etienne, with an elegantly furious lyric supported by insistent motivic repetition. It deserves to utterly ruin the charts.
[9]
Alfred Soto: This doesn’t sound like Saint Etienne so much as Anita Ward fronting a Trevor Horn-produced Seal track from 1991. Vocalists as blank as Imbruglia galumph from context to context in search of meaning, and if smooth Euro-diva disco gets her some of that Kylie dough, then more power to her.
[7]
Sophie Green: I think I really want to like this but it sounds like eight bars on repeat — there isn’t enough in the way of development or expansion throughout the song, but I do like Imbruglia’s cold, distanced vocals.
[4]
Anthony Easton: Imbruglia’s voice is so pleasant and low key that it delivers everything with a rarefied air of lassitude — usually a good thing, but this is slight even for her gifts.
[5]
Doug Robertson: She might have escaped the Beth-from-Neighbours tag, but it seems unlikely she’ll ever get away from the long shadow that “Torn” casts upon her. Natalie here is doing her very best to sound like an artist who totally belongs in the 21st century and isn’t just a remnant of the late nineties’ fondness for acts who had a way with a pretty tune and the face to match. Unfortunately, her definition of “relevant” seems to hover around the sort of track that even Dannii Minogue would have turned down a few years ago for sounding a bit too dated.
[5]
Ian Mathers: I like Imbruglia more than I’d imagine most here do (guys, White Lilies Island is actually a good album!), so I find this change of pace maybe less compelling than others might. “Want” is perfectly serviceable post-Sophie Ellis-Bextor pop, and certainly it’s worlds better than I’d expect from the descriptor “synth-pop co-written by Chris Martin,” but even as it gallops along I can’t shake the notion that it’s all surface and no feeling, which is a type of song I’m not sure Imbruglia can pull off.
[6]
Alex Ostroff: The arrangement is lush and her voice is smooth, but there’s not much to hold on to here, vocally or lyrically. On balance, strangely unaffecting, especially given how expressive I know she was once capable of being.
[5]
Iain Mew: The icy repeated line that runs through and drives this (“I hope you get all that you want…”) is pure unresolved ache, more hypnotising with every repetition. When it eventually does reach a resolution of sorts, it’s such an effectively cruel kick (“…cos I didn’t”), too. Don’t know just how much is down to Chris Martin but between this, “All Good Things” and “See It in a Boy’s Eyes”, I’d suggest that it would be better for everyone if he took over as the new Ryan Tedder.
[8]
I like to think she is singing this to Brad after she found out that he’d cheated on her with Lauren (Lou Carpenter’s daughter who rode horses all day).
I honestly couldn’t tell if she was saying “’cause I didn’t” or “’cause I did,” seeing how she muffles the words so much.
yeah, i also thought it was “I did”.
Not a single “Do not want”! Surprised.
There’s a bit around three minutes in where I think it’s pretty it’s “I didn’t,” but given the rest of the lyrics which option is more vicious anyways?
I’m liking this a bit more, but I guess basically what I’m saying is I’d rather listen to “Butterflies” than “Want,” you know? And it’s weird, Kate Bush didn’t occur to me, but after reading these blurbs and then watching the video, it was a little eerie – mostly there was no resemblence but every so often just for a second she sounded or looked exactly like Bush.