Nearly thirty years on from “Torn,” Natalie Imbruglia has made the record she apparently always wanted to make. Algorithm, released on the 4th of September through her own Landgirl Records, is her seventh studio album and her first in five years, following 2021’s top-ten comeback Firebird. It’s fully independent this time — she paid for it herself to keep the reins — and she co-wrote and co-produced every track, picking collaborators who’d stay in the room from first idea to final mix rather than just drop in a topline. That cast includes electronic duo MyRiot, Fraser T Smith, David Sneddon, and Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, and the results are, by her own account, “by far the most fun I’ve ever had making a record.” Her stated hope for listeners is that they “dance their arses off,” which tells you a fair bit about where the needle sits.
Because this is a pop record, unapologetically. Twelve tracks in a brisk thirty-six minutes, leaning into synths, disco and electropop in a way none of her previous albums quite dared. Opener “Debbie” was written with Eurythmics in mind — she’s said she imagined herself as Annie Lennox for it — and it sets the tone as a kind of pep talk against her own worst thoughts. Lead single “Upside Down” is jangly, shimmering, late-nineties-flavoured pop, while the title track goes somewhere darker: crunching Depeche Mode-ish synths, spoken interludes, and a lyric about the trapdoor feeling of endless scrolling. “It’s like you’ve opened one trapdoor and you’re falling endlessly through one after another,” she says. “Just Drive” is the softer breakup number, with a pulsing beat that’s drawn comparisons to Robyn, and the back half brings “Endgame,” the trance-tinged “Breathe With the Fire Lola” and a euphoric closer in “Beautiful Love.”
What gives the brightness its weight is the story underneath. The album was made during what Imbruglia calls the most challenging stretch of her mental health, following diagnoses of ADHD and OCD, and she’s been candid that songwriting was how she processed it. “Jesus on Mars” turns OCD anxieties into a two-minute synth-pop joke; “Who Dimmed the Lights” tackles perimenopause head-on, and she’s been clear there shouldn’t be any shame in that. “You can take something dark and turn it into light,” is how she puts it, and the reviews agree — Retropop calls it the most ambitious and personal record of her career, CelebMix reckons it’s “bold, personal and gloriously difficult to pin down.” For an artist whose debut was built on one of the great cover versions of the nineties, it’s a lovely irony that album seven is the one that sounds most like her. And having warmed up New Zealand crowds for Bryan Adams earlier this year, she’s earned a proper listen.
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