Pocketful of Sunshine (Natasha Bedingfield)

I bought the U.S. version of Natasha Bedingfield's sophomore album. I'd already purchased the import edition, entitled N.B., and I love it, so Pocketful of Sunshine had a lot to which it needed to measure up. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this version of the album just doesn't quite have the charm and spark of the other. N.B. was adventurous and overall a great listen. The only tracks that were iffy were "Smell the Roses" (which is okay but nothing special ... it got cut from the U.S. release) and "Backyard" (which I don't really like ... it didn't get cut, of course.) Some of the tracks I love, however, were excised: "I Wanna Have Your Babies," "When You Know You Know," "Tricky Angel," etc. Still, I wouldn't have minded these omissions if the replacements were awesome. While some of the new tracks are top-notch, like "Pocketful of Sunshine" and "Piece of Your Heart," others are good but just not the caliber of what they're replacing, like "Love Like This" and "Happy." Overall, this is still a decent album, but if one had to choose just one of Bedingfield's two second albums, I would go with N.B.

Tracks:
1. Put Your Arms Around Me
2. Pocketful of Sunshine
3. Happy
4. Love Like This (featuring Sean Kingston)
5. Piece of Your Heart
6. Soulmate
7. Say It Again
8. Angel
9. Backyard
10. Freckles
11. Who Knows
12. Pirate Bones
13. Not Givin' Up