Natasha Bedingfield

“I’ve knocked on every door in this whole town,” sings British pop star Natasha Bedingfield on her new album, Strip Me, and she’s not exaggerating by much. In spite of her ubiquitous Hills theme “Unwritten,” she’s never had anything like the Stateside profile she has in the U.K., but that hasn’t stopped her from banging her head against the U.S.’s brick wall. How the populace at large continues to resist winsome, unironically uplifting fare like Strip Me’s “Weightless” is a mystery, though its unfashionably humble message does run counter to the braggadocio that rules the airwaves. Bedingfield’s entering her 30s, but there’s an unforced girlishness to her music, a freewheeling optimism that runs through songs like the butterfly-effect fantasy “Touch,” where a spilled cup of coffee leads to a cute guy showing up at her house party. That she’s stocking up for said party with “grocery bags full of alcohol and chocolate chip cookies” sums up her appeal in a single shopping trip.

Updated 06/09/2011