Laura Imbruglia's debut self-titled album is a mix of classic pop sensibility and punk attitude inspired by the discontent that comes with being a glass-half-empty kind of person. ______________________________________________

As a debut album, and thinking back to the "It Makes A Crunchy Noise" EP as the starting point, this is breathtaking in it's scope. Like being let loose in a candy store with an empty bag and a set of big big eyes: Like a kid with a severe case of A.D.D. that you just want to smack - despite all that's going on it somehow manages to get it all together and make some kind of sense.

The love of Darren Hanlon that was so clear in her music is now filtered through to the beautiful words; little grabs here and there that hit hard ("everyone else is smelling roses and I'm stinking lonely"). But the music is something else - a full band that really pushes her vocals so that what used to be double-tracked almost apologetic singing is now so demanding it sounds right (even when it could actually be wrong...). The new version of "Lettuce and Anarchists" is a perfect example: the what-now sounds like demo version from the debut EP compared to the new version is so far inferior that the 3 year wait to re-record it was worth it.

And then there's "My Opus": a song so grand in scale it's hard to work out just 'why'? An enormous licorice allsort kind of madness: a double album worth of material mashed into 10 minutes of something. Something like this:
Start: sunny Ben Kweller-ish goodness
"and then I ventured into polyrhythms, I really shouldn't go anywhere near them..."
Fireworks go off: or is that those cicadas again?
3 and a half minutes in: Spooky 1930s horror movie organ sound creeping along with whispered vocals
5 and a half minutes: after some stuttered ending it starts up again with ben folds style stop start piano bashing
7 and a half minutes: the pills kick in! Funky slap bass and 80s synth - some New York "yeaah"s and faux-Prince "naaasty naaasty"
9 minutes: the whistle-blowing Puerto Rican band kicks in! I'm not making this up...
"do you like my opus?" (Clap to fade)
One of her heroes Freddie Mercury would be so proud - a modern day Bohemian Rhapsody?

Je-sus. What a work of art. Get it people. Get it now.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Looking For A Rabbit
2. Surly
3. Mad Scientist
4. My Opus
5. Tear Ducts
6. Lettuce & Anarchists
7. It's Getting Worse
8. Hurt My Feelings
9. Home Sweet Home
10. I Wanna Throw Stones
11. My Dream Of A Magical Washing Machine
12. What She Said