America is in love with Natasha Bedingfield’s cynically repackaged Pocketful Of Sunshine

Natasha Bedingfield “NatBed” - as I absolutely refuse to call her - has entered the Billboard Album chart at number three with her new album Pocketful Of Sunshine. Er, which seems to be half of her second European album - N.B - plus a bunch of new US-targeted tracks. Blimey. They didn’t fancy Sugababes, have given Girls Aloud a miss but choose the toothy blonde chick. Shocker.
Her success has apparently been helped by the inclusion of a collaboration with Sean Kingston on her album. This track, “Love Like This”, doesn’t appear on the European version of her album N.B. Still with me? It’s not uncommon practice for labels to mess with the odd album track these days, with albums by big artists often being tailored for “maximum market penetration” and whatnot. However, redoing half of the album and renaming it is pretty ruthless. But it worked, so hooray.

To be fair I can understand why she does so well - she’s unthreatening, pretty, talented and no doubt plays the game very well. She’s never going to be spotted downing a bottle of whisky on a night out (hi Sarah Harding!), which means her US label isn’t going to be nervous about pouring $$$ into promoting her Stateside.
I would embed “Love Like This” here, but The Man won’t allow me - check it out here if you’re in need of a searing blast of innocuous pop fluff.
[via Music Week]