The Good: Two wonderful songs, Good vocals, A track that is not on the album.
The Bad: Nothing exceptionally new and b-track is intended to be the second single!
The Basics: A disappointing c.d. single, “Torn” includes Natalie Imbruglia’s first and second U.S. hit with an acoustic version of “Torn” that is not quite worth hunting down.
I’m currently in the middle of hunting an agent to sell my television series to a network so some of the many scripts I have been writing might actually see the light of day on television. The process is laughable and heartbreaking at times, most notably when I encounter agents who want me to sell the work to them with things like “Give me the phrase people will use when they tell their neighbor over the fence about the project.” That’s advertising, that’s a completely different skill set from writing. It’s the skill I don't have and I need an agent for. I'm real good at finding agents who won't be a good fit for me. I'm also able to recognize bad business decisions from networks, agents and A&R people. One of the worst business decisions in the music industry in the 1990s had to be the treatment of Natalie Imbruglia, as is evident by her single “Torn.”
First off, for those who have not read my review of Left Of The Middle (reviewed here!), I have generally enjoyed the works of Natalie Imbruglia. I think she should not have been a one-hit wonder and that if her management had been smarter, she would have had the international status of someone like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera. Seriously. The proof is on the U.S. single for “Torn.” “Torn,” for those who slept through the late 1990s, was a massive hit which introduced Natalie Imbruglia to U.S. audiences as a bona fide pop-rock star. Anyone remember what her follow-up single from Left Of The Middle was? It was “Wishing I Was There,” which is the b-track on “Torn.” The tragedy of Natalie Imbruglia’s career is that her fist single was so big that people who bought it already had the second song that her A&R people were trying to make a hit. This made Imbruglia appear commercially unviable because “Wishing I Was There” did not gain traction on the charts (those who bought “Torn” had already heard it) and her career in the U.S. was pretty much over. The “Torn” single remains on the market as a cautionary tale of picking the right management.
With three tracks, “Torn” is a mixed bag for singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia. The first two tracks – the standard release “Torn” and an acoustic version of the same song – were not written by Imbruglia. In fact, it is a cover song she sings and performs guitar on. Her other song, “Wishing I Was There” was co-written by Imbruglia and she plays guitar and sings on it as well. Neither song was produced by Imbruglia, which makes some sense as this was her debut outing. That said, it is a monumental waste of money; outside the acoustic version of “Torn,” these songs are the same as their Left Of The Middle cuts and the acoustic version of “Torn” is hardly worth the expense or effort of hunting the single down.
“Torn” introduces Natalie Imbruglia’s ability to so from sugary soprano to a vocally-powerful diva who is charged with anger and the song is one of the best break-up songs of all time. Backed by screeching guitars in the standard version and quieter guitars which force her voice to convey the energy and angst, Imbruglia belts out the memorable refrain “Nothing's fine I'm torn / I'm all out of faith / This is how I feel / I'm cold and I am shamed / Lying naked on the floor / Illusion never changed / Into something real / I'm wide awake / And I can see / The perfect sky is torn” (“Torn”). The song goes from being an anger charged anthem in its standard release to a melancholy ballad with the acoustic version which is no less heartwrenching.
But what kills this c.d. single – and Imbruglia’s career path – was that her second (U.S.) single release was “Wishing I Was There” which is the only other track on the single. This means that fans who bought “Torn” already had the follow-up, just as if they had bought Left Of The Middle. And by the time “Wishing I Was There” was released, so many copies of “Torn” had been sold it was hard to imaging who didn’t already have the songs! “Wishing I Was There” is not a bad song and it has a lot of the catchy elements most pop tunes seek, like a simple, catchy tune and an obvious rhyme scheme. It has that with its lines “I know, I get cold / Cos I can't leave things well alone / Understand I'm accident prone / Me, I get free / Every night the moon is mine / But when the morning comes / Don't say you love me / Don't say you need me / I really don't think that's fair / Boy I'm not so dumb / But when you leave me / I'll be wishing I, wishing I, wishing I was there” (“Wishing I Was There”).
Three angsty tunes are also a poor use of the c.d. medium. With all of the capacity here, one would have hoped Imbruglia might have filled it out with more tracks, or at least some interesting b-sides. As it stands, this is one of the reasons older c.d. singles aren’t necessarily worth hunting down and only those obsessed with Imbruglia will want this for the acoustic version of “Torn.” For the rest of us, there's always Left Of The Middle.
For other female artists, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Beauty Of the Rain - Dar Williams
The Best Damn Thing - Avril Lavigne
Break Every Rule - Tina Turner
3.5/10
For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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