BEDINGFIELD, NATASHA

In its final form as released in January 2008, Pocketful of Sunshine contains only half of N.B.'s 14 songs, with six brand new tracks. To be fair, the seven earlier songs held over are the stronger material: the spare acoustic guitar ballad "Soulmate" shows Christina Aguilera that it's possible to sound dramatic without wildly over-singing, and "Say It Again" makes good use of Maroon 5's Adam Levine as a duet partner. ("No More What Ifs," an awkward pairing of Bedingfield's chirpy and veddy proper diction with an out-of-nowhere rap by Eve that was the nadir of N.B., has thankfully been retired.) Elsewhere, "Who Knows?" and "Not Givin' Up" present a more aggressive and harder-edged version of Bedingfield closer to her brother's electronic club music, an unexpected change of pace that works quite well, recalling Kylie Minogue's more recent work. Far better than the summery charm of the hit "Love Like This," the title track is the most immediately effective of the new songs, featuring an atypically impassioned call-and-response lead vocal against an instantly catchy, gimmicky chorus. Unfortunately, the remaining four songs are the album's weakest tracks, no better or worse than the make-weight tunes that pad out the average American Idol contestant's debut. Natasha Bedingfield is a genuine pop talent who often flashes hints of a greater than average ambition that could turn her into something more substantial than the likes of Rhianna, but the awkwardly assembled Pocketful of Sunshine feels inorganic in a way that Unwritten did not, less personal and more vetted by various A&R executives. The best thing that could happen is that it's enough of a success that she gets left alone to make her third album on her own terms. Stewart Mason.

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